Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 21h

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

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

1

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

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

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

matildaslab.wordpress.com

1

Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 2d

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

Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 3d

How much did it hurt, in dollars?
www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
#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

Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 4d

Daydreaming is fuel for epiphanies
www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
#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

Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 4d

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

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

1

Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 6d

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

Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 8d

Dopamine fuels forgetfulness. Feel great whilst you forget, because forgetting is not always a bad thing.
www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
#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

1

Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 8d

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

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

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

Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 9d

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

Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 10d

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

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

Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 11d

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

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

Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 12d

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

Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 13d

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

Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 14d

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

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

Matilda's Lab @matildaslab.bsky.social · 15d

So Friday, so newsletter!
This week we catch autumn. We learn that joyfulness both protects your brain and helps you to forget. There are gardening bugs, tight-fisted pet owners and flagrant political bias, plus marsupials.
open.substack.com/pub/matildas...

Matilda's Lab Newsletter #96

This week we catch autumn. We learn that joyfulness both protects your brain and helps you to forget. There are gardening bugs, tight-fisted pet owners and flagrant political bias, plus marsupials.

open.substack.com