Journal Club

Highlighting recent, timely papers selected by Academy member labs

Category Archives: Journal Club

To find zoonotic viruses, researchers seek genomic signatures of virus adaptations to hosts

Posted on October 15, 2021 by Jyoti Madhusoodanan

In light of the ongoing pandemic, researchers have stepped up efforts to identify new zoonotic threats—viruses that could make the leap from animals to humans and cause future epidemics. Studies aiming to identify such viruses often focus on a novel … Continue reading →

Using helpers, desert birds hedge their bets to weather variable conditions

Posted on October 8, 2021 by David Adam

Unpredictable environments can help explain the evolution of cooperative behavior, according to a decade-long study of birds in the Kalahari Desert. The research showed that white-browed sparrow-weavers (Plocepasser mahali) work to raise the offspring of other birds as a strategy … Continue reading →

Frustrations can combust into a riot regardless of age, politics, or gender

Posted on October 1, 2021 by Amy McDermott

The most common caricature of riots suggests criminal young men are the culprits. But a recent study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B suggests that is not necessarily the case. The study used a video game to incite virtual … Continue reading →

Categories: Journal Club | Psychological and Cognitive Sciences | Social Sciences | Tagged collective violence, experimental psychology, Parklife, protest, riot, vandalism, video game | Leave a comment

When listeners pay close attention to stories, their heart rates synchronize

Posted on September 24, 2021 by Carolyn Beans

An international team of researchers has shown that when a group of people hear the same story or watch the same video, their heart rates tend to rise and fall in synch. This correlation of heart rates, described this … Continue reading →

An algorithm suggests a sidewalk-space redesign to make cities safer for pedestrians

Posted on September 17, 2021 by Amy McDermott

A recent study in Communications Physics is among the first to systematically analyze whole city networks of spider-webbing roads and sidewalks. Examining 10 global cities, including Boston, Paris, and New York, researchers created an algorithm that could help planners choose … Continue reading →

Categories: Computer sciences | Journal Club | Tagged city planning, COVID-19, cycling, pedestrian, sidewalk, social distance, urban planning | 1 Comment

Digital reconstruction gets to the root of 400-million-year-old plant

Posted on September 3, 2021 by David Adam

Researchers have managed to reconstruct the detailed 3-D structure of a fossilized plant more than 400 million years old. The ancient leafy organism, a relative of today’s clubmosses, grew in the Early Devonian era—a crucial time for the development of … Continue reading →

Categories: Evolution | Journal Club | Plant Biology | Tagged Asteroxylon mackiei, digital reconstruction, evolution, paleontology, plant roots | Leave a comment

Robot swarms communicate best when messages spread neighbor to neighbor

Posted on August 27, 2021 by Amy McDermott

In the not-so-distant future, swarms of robots could help contain environmental disasters such as wildfires, by locating and dousing the most dangerous patches, even as flames move and spread. But how would these individual robots coordinate effectively to pull off … Continue reading →

Categories: Animal Behavior | Computer sciences | Journal Club | Tagged ants, fish, kilobot, majority rule, network connection, node, robot, robotics, schooling, social network, wildfire | Leave a comment

Forests fight drought, even from far away

Posted on August 13, 2021 by Amy McDermott

Forests are said to be the lungs of the Earth—they also provide a moist breath that travels tens to thousands of miles. Dense stands of trees release foggy clouds of condensation. The water molecules from those clouds ride wind currents … Continue reading →

Categories: Environmental Sciences | Journal Club | Tagged aforestation, climate change, conservation, drought, IPCC, precipitationshed, rainforest, reforestation | Leave a comment

Drought causes lasting changes to the rice root microbiome

Posted on August 6, 2021 by Carolyn Beans

Beneficial microbes living in and around a crop’s roots could be powerful allies in the fight to keep plants alive through droughts, especially as climate change worsens. But before scientists can harness these microbial partners to make crops more resilient, … Continue reading →

Well-connected members of tight-knit groups spread controversial ideas much more readily than “influencers”

Posted on July 30, 2021 by Amy McDermott

The people who spread new and controversial ideas—changes in diet, exercise routine, political leaning, or even attitudes about vaccination—may not be the Kim Kardashians and Paris Hiltons. According to a recent study in Nature Communications, those with the most actual … Continue reading →

Categories: Journal Club | Social Sciences | Tagged complex contagion, COVID-19, network science, simple contagion, social network, sociology, vaccines | 1 Comment