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matildaslab.bsky.social
Matilda's Lab
@matildaslab.bsky.social
68 followers 55 following 700 posts
Science nerd Dad who engages his kids with science through music, drawing and writing by making it fun. Sharing my content too help others share their own journeys of discovery. https://linktr.ee/chrismacalister
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matildaslab.bsky.social
Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 3h
The land that Ancient Egyptians built their gargantuan Karnak temple on gradually emerged from the Nile. This act bore a striking resemblance to their creation story and was likely a factor in why a temple was started there in the first place.
www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
#ScienceNews
Research unearths origins of Ancient Egypt’s Karnak Temple
Researchers have carried out the most comprehensive geoarchaeological survey of Egypt’s Karnak Temple near Luxor – one of the ancient world’s largest temple complexes and a UNESCO Wo...
www.eurekalert.org
matildaslab.bsky.social
Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 1d
It's nice when a songwriting technique that you have adopted gets peer reveiwed backing. Sentences that contain unusual word combinations are memorised more easily.
www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
#sciencenews
MIT cognitive scientists reveal why some sentences stand out from others
MIT neuroscientists find sentences that stick in your mind longer are those that have distinctive meanings, making them stand out from sentences you’ve previously seen.
www.eurekalert.org
matildaslab.bsky.social
Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 1d
Newsletter time!
This week we have birthday fun. There's ant yoghurt, how to remember things, how to bridge divisive issues, the limitation of sweeteners and the unintended power of political bumper stickers.
open.substack.com/pub/matildas...
Matilda's Lab Newsletter #97
This week we have birthday fun. There's ant yogurt, how to remember things, how to bridge divisive issues, the limitation of sweeteners and the unintended power of political bumper stickers.
open.substack.com
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matildaslab.bsky.social
Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 1d
Teamwork makes the dream work, but some teams are more natural than others. We work better when we all intuitively know our place. This is what changes a team into a dream team. 

www.eurekalert.org/news-release...

#sciencenews
The importance of a leader–follower relationship for performing tasks
Osaka Metropolitan University researchers investigated the impact of voluntary division of roles on performing a task.
www.eurekalert.org
matildaslab.bsky.social
Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 2d
More exercise = less heartbeats in the long run. Well, after the long run, you know what I mean.
www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
#sciencenews
Why exercise could actually save your heartbeats - not waste them
Forget the myth that exercise uses up your heartbeats. New Australian research shows fitter people use far fewer total heartbeats per day - potentially adding years to their lives.
www.eurekalert.org
matildaslab.bsky.social
Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 2d
Today's featured post is my cartoon about Keratin.
matildaslab.wordpress.com/2021/09/01/k...
#sciart #scicomm
Keratin
Matilda’s Lab ©2021.
matildaslab.wordpress.com
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matildaslab.bsky.social
Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 3d
Stress is a frequent response when we feel things are our of control. Attempting to claim any form of control over our situation, however spurious, can help us cope.
www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
#sciencenews
Feeling in control helps beat daily stress, researchers find
People may be more likely to resolve a problem if they feel they have more control over it, according to a new study from a team including researchers at Penn State. They also found that the relations...
www.eurekalert.org
matildaslab.bsky.social
Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 3d
How much did it hurt, in dollars?
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#sciencenews
How much does it hurt? New research puts a price on pain to improve measurement
Asking people how much money they would accept to experience pain again can provide a more accurate and comparable measure of pain levels than the familiar 1–10 scale, according to an internatio...
www.eurekalert.org
matildaslab.bsky.social
Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 4d
Daydreaming is fuel for epiphanies
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#sciencenews
Daydreaming can lead to epiphanies, greater career purpose, WashU research finds
Recent research from Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis indicates that people can increase their potential for experiencing work-related epiphanies by engaging in a playful typ...
www.eurekalert.org
matildaslab.bsky.social
Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 5d
Singing can be good for treating lung disease. It's not always about the drugs, and gradually, we're finding other ways to relieve ailments.
www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
##sciencenews
Specialised singing programmes can improve the symptoms and quality of life of people with lung disease
Singing can improve the quality of life of people with lung disease and help reduce their symptoms, according to a gold-standard randomised-controlled trial presented at the European Respiratory Socie...
www.eurekalert.org
matildaslab.bsky.social
Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 5d
I completed this wave of updates to the mammals. I've actually gone slightly outside the scope of mammals. Adding Dimetrodon now makes this a map of the synapsids.
The full map, which I'm now in the process of incorporating this into, is here: matildaslab.wordpress.com/map-of-life/
#sciart #mammals
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matildaslab.bsky.social
Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 7d
We are a social species, and being social is good for our health in many ways that we are still learning about. One effect of being social is that it keeps your brain young. 

www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
#sciencenews
Lifetime of social ties may slow biological processes of aging
The cumulative effect of social advantages across a lifetime – from parental warmth in childhood to friendship, community engagement and religious support in adulthood – may slow the biolo...
www.eurekalert.org
matildaslab.bsky.social
Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 8d
Dopamine fuels forgetfulness. Feel great whilst you forget, because forgetting is not always a bad thing.
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#sciencenews
Tiny worms reveal big secrets about memory
In a discovery that could reshape how we think about memory, researchers at Flinders University have found that forgetting is not just a glitch in the brain but is actually a finely tuned process, and...
www.eurekalert.org
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matildaslab.bsky.social
Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 9d
Living well keeps your brain young.
www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
#sciencenews
Healthy habits can make your brain age more slowly, study finds
Quality sleep, avoiding tobacco, social support and other healthy habits are linked to slower brain aging.
www.eurekalert.org
matildaslab.bsky.social
Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 9d
Termite fungal farming techniques discovered. How to keep harmful pest fungi at bay.
www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
#sciencenews
Revealed: How fungus-farming termites protect gardens from invaders
Some termites form symbiotic relationships with fungus. When harmful fungi invade their carefully cultivated crops, these fungus-farming termites fight back with the precision of skilled gardeners, a ...
www.eurekalert.org
matildaslab.bsky.social
Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 9d
Here's a map of mammals update. I'm close to finishing this batch of mammals before moving to a different area of the map of life. I've added Deltatherium, who lived alongside the dinosaurs.
See the full map (minus additional mammals) here: matildaslab.wordpress.com/map-of-life/
#sciart #mammals
matildaslab.bsky.social
Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 10d
Plasmids appear to have been key in the story of antibiotic resistance so far, hinting at a way to prevent more of it going forward.
www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
#sciencenews
Capturing 100 years of antibiotic resistance evolution
Researchers have dived into the pre-antibiotic history of plasmids — one of bacteria’s tools of antimicrobial resistance — to understand how they have facilitated the spread of treat...
www.eurekalert.org
matildaslab.bsky.social
Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 11d
Nitrogen is a problem. We use it to feed crops and then it pollutes our waters. Bacteria to the rescue, again. They can convert harmful nitrogen compounds back into atmospheric nitrogen, with no nasty byproducts.
www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
#sciencenews
Rivers’ hidden helpers: microbes that clean up nitrogen pollution across China
A new study has revealed how tiny microbes in rivers and wetlands across China help clean up excess nitrogen pollution, offering fresh insights into the health of freshwater ecosystems and the global ...
www.eurekalert.org
matildaslab.bsky.social
Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 11d
Baby's make the world seem more dangerous. Parents, I welcome your own comments 😄
www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
#sciencenews #parenting
Caring for a baby makes the world seem more dangerous
New Cornell University research finds that caregiving heightens perceptions of threat in dangerous situations — a conclusion drawn from a first-of-its-kind study using virtual environments to ex...
www.eurekalert.org
matildaslab.bsky.social
Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 12d
If you're looking to raise money for a good cause, you may save some time by prioritising non-pet owners. Especially dog owners.
www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
#sciencenews
Raising money for a charity? Don't bark up the wrong tree.
A new Dartmouth study finds that cat owners donate slightly more than dog owners, and also donate more often and more diversely. However, people without pets donate the most. The findings are publishe...
www.eurekalert.org
matildaslab.bsky.social
Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 12d
If I'm learning anything through keeping up with new publications, it's that people really love studying Taylor Swift. Most recently, we have a detailed breakdown of the evolution of her accent.
www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
#sciencenews #taylorswift
Tracking the evolution of Taylor Swift’s dialect
A pair of researchers from the University of Minnesota analyzed years of Taylor Swift’s recorded interviews to track how her dialect has evolved. Their results were published in J...
www.eurekalert.org
matildaslab.bsky.social
Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 13d
Our expectations of what we plan to focus on affect how we do it. This makes us more prone to missing the unexpected. 

www.eurekalert.org/news-release...

#sciencenews
UC Davis researchers look at how the brain prioritizes what we see
How we focus our attention before we even see an object matters. For example, when we look for something moving in the sky, our expectation would be very different if the object is a bird flying past ...
www.eurekalert.org
matildaslab.bsky.social
Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 14d
Our political divides run deep. We will form opinions not based on content, but on context. The same message can trigger very different responses depending on who we think is delivering it.
www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
#sciencenews
Research shows there are no easy fixes to political hatred
Reducing polarization and "partisan animosity"—the distrust and hatred of the other party—is remarkably difficult, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the Na...
www.eurekalert.org
matildaslab.bsky.social
Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 15d
New data suggests that we spend nearly half of our time running on autopilot.
www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
#sciencenews
Our actions are dictated by “autopilot”, not choice, finds new study
Habit, not conscious choice, drives most of our actions, according to new research from the University of Surrey, University of South Carolina and Central Queensland University. 
www.eurekalert.org
matildaslab.bsky.social
Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 15d
It's a basic school experiment. Roots grow down, shoots grow up. In later years, we learn that auxin is the compound that controls this. But how? It seems that auxin thickens cell walls, which slows growth in specific areas.
www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
#sciencenews
New research shows how plant roots bend and growth downward toward gravity
Scientists have uncovered how the plant hormone auxin helps roots bend and downwards towards gravity – a process called gravitropism - even after encountering obstacles in soil. 
www.eurekalert.org