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It is believed that the composition of gut bacteria in newborn babies is a strong indicator of future health. Image credit - Pixabay/ blankita_ua, image under Pixabay license
health | frontier research
01 October 2019

Bacteria passed from mother to baby may play a role in later health

The bacteria and viruses a baby inherits from its mother play a crucial role in determining the child’s health in later life, according to research that could lead to new interventions to tackle conditions like obesity, allergies and colic.

Investigating less-studied neural structures is revealing insights which could explain dyslexia. Image credit: Pezibear/Pixabay, licensed under Pixabay licence
health | frontier research
30 September 2019

Better understanding sensory perception could help people with autism and dyslexia

Deciphering how the brain processes sight and hearing could have implications for how we understand and treat conditions such as dyslexia, autism and schizophrenia.

Many of the risk factors to do with cancer are related to lifestyle, so there is concrete action people can take to avoid getting the disease. Image credit - Pixabay/ MabelAmber, licensed under pixabay license
health | policy
18 September 2019

Will we ever cure cancer?

Cancer is a group of diseases that we may never be able to cure completely, but scientists are optimistic that vaccines, personalised medicine and smart lifestyle choices will help prevent and treat a much greater proportion of cases than currently happens.

Radical changes are needed to overhaul our global food system, which accounts for 37% of total human-made emissions. Image credit - Lee Wag, licensed under CC0
environment | health | policy
03 September 2019

A climate-friendly diet means rethinking the entire food system - researchers

Shifting people to a new diet that is healthier for both the planet and for our bodies will require radical changes in the way food is grown, sold and eaten, including possibly adding a tax on meat and dairy products.

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.

Saccharina latissima is one of the two seaweed species GENIALG is studying. Image credit - GENIALG
health
22 August 2019

Magnets are being used to extract algal molecules for the beauty, bioplastics industries

Entrepreneurs in the aquaculture sector face a problem – extracting all the valuable molecules from seaweed and algal cells is still really difficult. But marine enzymes and magnets are now making it easier to remove precious molecules and can even turn microalgae into magnetically-guided ‘vehicles’ for targeted drug delivery.

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.

Neurologists, architects, artists, and epidemiologists are collaborating to design cities that could be used to improve well-being among older people. Image credit - Senior Guidance, licensed under CCby2.0
health | ict | industry
06 August 2019

Emotional response to city design could guide urban planning

Virtual reality and scenario-testing models are being built to help urban planners and architects get real-time feedback about the impact of their designs on mental health, particularly for older people.  

Analysing chicken genetics could help identify which strains are more responsive to a particular microbe. Image credit - Pexels, licensed under the pexels licence
health | agriculture
05 August 2019

Coming to a farm near you: The humble microbe boosting Europe’s food industry

Farmers who want to produce bigger chickens, fewer greenhouse gas-filled cow burps or healthier animals are increasingly able to turn to one tiny source: microbes.

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.

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