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Frontier research

In-depth fossil analysis could help us understand the true functions of colour. Image credit: Aline Dassel/Pixabay, licensed under Pixabay licence
frontier research
29 August 2019

Fossil colour studies are changing our idea of how dinosaurs looked

What colour were the dinosaurs? If you have a picture in your head, fresh studies suggest you may need to revise it. New fossil research also suggests that pigment-producing structures go beyond how the dinosaurs looked and may have played a fundamental role inside their bodies too.

Memories from a traumatic event seem to encode in a different way to usual ones. Image credit - Tomás Ryan
health | frontier research
26 August 2019

Learning how memory works could be key to treating PTSD

Think back to what you did last weekend. You might be able to picture it clearly, but there should be no doubt in your mind that whatever you are remembering happened in the past. For people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), however, memories of traumatic events often return in the form of vivid flashbacks that make it feel like it’s happening all over again – putting them right back at the scene of a car crash, or the moment they lost a loved one.

Comparing brain scans from different primates could help us understand the origins of language in humans. Image credit - Susanne Jutzeler/Pixabay, licensed under Pixabay licence
frontier research | health
20 August 2019

Hand gestures point towards the origins of language

Communication gestures used by humans and our primate relatives are providing clues about how our species’ ability to use spoken language evolved.

A seed-sharing network would allow European farmers to manage their own seed resources rather than depend on what big agribusiness want to sell. Image credit - Pixabay/ StockSnap, licensed under pixabay license
environment | agriculture | frontier research
08 August 2019

Sharing seeds could help farmers grow better food

Tapping into the genetic diversity contained within the seeds of wild relatives and forgotten crop plants could help farmers decrease their dependency on global agribusiness and grow food better suited to local conditions.

When a piece of music is played at the wrong tempo it is difficult to recognise because our brain uses rhythm to help make sense of sounds. Image credit - flickr/ Brian Richardson, licensed under CC BY 2.0
frontier research | health
29 July 2019

Link between music and speech rhythm in brain could provide language insight

Neuroscientist Dr Domenica Bueti often plays an altered version of the classic aria La donna è mobile when she gives talks about the importance of time perception. Her friend’s piano rendition of Giuseppe Verdi’s composition uses the same notes but is played at different speeds. Rarely does anyone ever identify the tune.

Switching to more efficient appliances can save people money over time, although they are often more expensive to buy. Image credit - Photo Mix
energy | frontier research | policy
25 July 2019

Shoppers ‘can’t afford’ energy efficient cars, homes - researchers

Europeans can slash their fuel bills and have a significant impact on curbing global greenhouse gas emissions by buying more energy efficient cars, homes or even fridges – but many do not because of higher initial cost of green products, mistrust in EU energy ratings, and lack of awareness of long-term savings, researchers say.

Exercise can stimulate the production of beige fat and make the body more efficient at burning energy. Image credit - Pxhere, licensed under CC0
health | frontier research
23 July 2019

‘Browning’ white fat cells opens new avenue to obesity prevention

Scientists are getting closer to understanding how to turn the body’s energy-storing white fat cells into energy-burning beige fat cells, opening up hopes that fat deposits could one day be deliberately manipulated to prevent obesity and related health conditions.

FRB 121102, a repeating burst, was discovered in 2015. This discovery enabled astronomers to figure out what galaxy the FRB came from and in turn locate hundreds more FRBs. Image credit - Gemini Observatory / AURA / NSF / NRC
space | frontier research
16 July 2019

Why hunting for fast radio bursts is an ‘exploding field’ in astronomy

Little more than a decade ago, two astronomers discovered mysterious bursts of radio waves that seem to take place all over the sky, often outshining all the stars in a galaxy. Since then, the study of these fast radio bursts, or FRBs, has taken off, and while we still don’t know what exactly they are or what causes them, scientists are now edging closer to some answers.

The Ġgantija temples of Malta are among the earliest free-standing buildings known. Image credit - Bs0u10e01, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
frontier research
11 July 2019

Island cores unravel mysteries of ancient Maltese civilisation

The mysteries of an ancient civilisation that survived for more than a millennium on the island of Malta – and then collapsed within two generations – have been unravelled by archaeologists who analysed pollen buried deep within the earth and ancient DNA from skulls and bones.

This video shows the body's immune system attacking a bacterial membrane. It punches one hole in the surface before pausing and then punching more. Video source - nature communications ( DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10058-7)
frontier research | health
02 July 2019

In a picture: Filming the immune system in action – Prof. Georg Fantner

By assembling a camera that can record video at nanometre resolution, scientists have filmed how the immune system kills bacteria by poking holes into it. Professor Georg Fantner tells us about how this was achieved and why his next challenge is to build a video camera that can film the inside of a living cell.

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