Female chimps with powerful moms are less likely to leave home. Duke Today, Jan. 20, 2020. Moving out of the family home isn’t just an adult milestone for humans — many wild animals do it too. Researchers find that female chimps with powerful moms are less likely to cut the apron strings. Picked up by Cosmos, BBC Science Focus Magazine, and the Daily Mail.
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Male sparrows are less intimidated by the songs of aging rivals
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Male sparrows are less intimidated by the songs of aging rivals. Duke Today, Jan. 17, 2020. As they get up in years, male swamp sparrow songs don’t strike fear like they used to. The same singing that marks a male as “the guy to beat” at age two signals that he’s “obsolete” by age 10. Picked up by Audubon Magazine.
Scientist-sculptor Stephen Wainwright dies
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Scientist-sculptor Stephen Wainwright dies. Duke Today, Dec. 16, 2019.
Over more than 30 years at Duke, the discipline-straddling professor helped shape the field of biomechanics.
Why are giant pandas born so tiny?
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Why are giant pandas born so tiny? Duke Today, Dec. 13, 2019. Giant pandas are born tiny and helpless, but why has always been a mystery. New clues from bones put an old idea to the test. Picked up by Smithsonian Magazine andFuturity.
A.I. birdwatcher lets you see through the eyes of a machine
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This A.I. birdwatcher lets you ‘see’ through the eyes of a machine. Duke Today, October 31, 2019. It can take years of birdwatching experience to tell one species from the next. But using an artificial intelligence technique called deep learning, Duke University researchers have trained a computer to identify up to 200 species of birds from just a photo. This tool goes beyond giving the right answer to explain its thinking in a way that even someone who doesn’t know a penguin from a puffin can understand. Picked up by BBC Digital Planet and MIT Technology Review.
The making of a root
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The making of a root. Duke Today, Dec. 4, 2019. How plants harness ‘bad’ molecules for good ends.
ID verification, now for cancer
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ID verification, now for cancer. Duke Today, Nov. 22, 2019.
Tiny devices made of DNA could detect cancer with fewer false alarms
‘T-ray’ laser runs on laughing gas
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Scientists made a ‘T-ray’ laser runs on laughing gas. Duke Research blog, November 14, 2019. Terahertz laser finally arrives in practical, tunable form. Duke physicist worked on it over two decades.
How status sticks to genes
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How status sticks to genes. Duke Today, Oct. 15, 2019. Life at the bottom of the social ladder may have long-term health effects that even upward mobility can’t undo, according to new research in monkeys.
Duke cosmologist awarded prestigious Packard Fellowship
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Duke cosmologist awarded prestigious Packard Fellowship. Duke Today, Oct. 15, 2019. If you ask Duke assistant professor Dan Scolnic what amazes him about cosmology, he’ll say, it’s “really the only field in all of science where you could stand in front of people and say, ‘we understand 5% of what’s going on,’ and still think we’re kind of smart.”
A baboon mom’s history of hardship has lasting effects on her kids
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A baboon mom’s history of hardship has lasting effects on her kids. Duke Today, September 24, 2019. Baboons reveal how childhood wounds faced by one generation can take a toll on the next, and how close relationships with parents or other sources of support might help break the cycle. Picked up by UPI.
The little things
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The little things. Duke Research blog, Sept. 23, 2019. Meet a student photographer who combines up-close views of science and nature with the magic of light.
Leaving the Louvre: Duke team shows how to get out fast
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Leaving the Louvre: Duke team shows how to get out fast. Duke Research blog, September 12, 2019. Imagine trying to move the 26,000 tourists who visit the Louvre each day through the maze of galleries and out of harm’s way. This team spent 100 straight hours doing just that, and took home a prize.
Duke team wins $3M grant to study peatlands and climate change
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Duke team wins $3M grant to study peatlands and climate change. Duke Today, August 29, 2019. Researchers use a food web approach to study how bogs, and their vast carbon stores, might respond to warming.
Love at first whiff
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Love at first whiff. Duke Research blog, August 27, 2019. Many people turn to the Internet to find a Mr. or Ms. Right. But lemurs don’t have to cyberstalk potential love interests to find a good match — they just give them a sniff. Picked up by Mirage News and the National Science Foundation.
How two become one
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How two become one. 1,100 Words on Duke Research, August 19, 2019. Its mysterious gray-green goblets poking up through tufts of moss, this Gray’s cup lichen isn’t one living thing but two — a fungus and an alga — working together.
Digging into Durham’s eviction problem
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Digging into Durham’s eviction problem. Duke Research blog, August 18, 2019. Students crunched 20 years of data on Durham evictions to figure out which neighborhoods were most vulnerable, and what the city could save by helping people facing eviction stay in their homes.
World’s smallest fossil monkey found in Amazon jungle
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World’s smallest fossil monkey found in Amazon jungle. Duke Today, July 25, 2019. A fossilized tooth found in Peru’s Amazon jungle has been identified as belonging to a new species of tiny monkey no heavier than a hamster. The find helps bridge a 15-million-year gap in the fossil record for New World monkeys. Picked up by The Times of London, VICE, Gizmodo and Haaretz.
Duke physicists share prize for discovery of the top quark
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Duke physicists share prize for discovery of the top quark. Duke Today, July 17, 2019. Teams behind the 1995 discovery recognized for first observations of tiny but hefty particle at the heart of matter.
First encounters with the inner brain
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First encounters with the inner brain. Duke School of Medicine, June 24, 2019. Neurologist Leonard White says today is a big day for the 129 first-year medical students in his Brain and Behavior class. In their first six months of medical school, the students have mostly examined the brain from the outside. They’ve run their fingers over its wrinkled walnut-like surface and traced the deep fissures that separate its lobes. But now, these future medical doctors will peer inside and get a firsthand glimpse of what lies beneath the surface.
Life is tough but so are worms — thanks to mom
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Life is tough but so are worms — thanks to mom. Duke Today, July 8, 2019. Numerous studies show that the legacy of hardship can be passed from one generation to the next. The good news is that resilience can cross generations too. A worm study found that offspring of mothers who ate fewer calories during pregnancy were better able to bounce back from starvation themselves. A mother worm transmits her coping abilities to the next generation via changes in insulin signaling that are transferred via her eggs to her offspring.
Malaria hijacks your genes to invade your liver
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Malaria hijacks your genes to invade your liver. Duke Today, June 27, 2019. Researchers have identified more than 100 ‘hijacked’ human genes that malaria parasites commandeer to take up residence inside their victim’s liver during the silent early stages of infection, before symptoms appear. Before their work only a few such genes were known. The findings could lead to new ways to stop malaria parasites before people get sick and help keep the disease from spreading, via treatments that are less likely to promote resistance. Picked up by WUNC and the Raleigh News & Observer.
What made humans ‘the fat primate’?
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What made humans ‘the fat primate’? Duke Today, June 26, 2019. How did humans get to be so much fatter than chimps, despite sharing 99% of the same DNA? The answer may have to do with an ancient molecular shift in how DNA is packaged inside fat cells, which curbed our ability to turn “bad” fat into “good” fat. Picked up by the New York Post.
The surprising reason why some lemurs may be more sensitive to forest loss
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The surprising reason why some lemurs may be more sensitive to forest loss. Duke Today, June 13, 2019. Researchers report that the microbes living in the guts of leaf-eating lemurs like this one are largely shaped by the forests where they live, a finding that could make some species less resilient to deforestation. Picked up by UPI and Cosmos Magazine.
Is there a limit to human endurance? Science says yes
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Is there a limit to human endurance? Science says yes. Duke Today, June 5, 2019. From the Ironman to the Tour de France, some competitions test even the toughest endurance athletes. A study of energy expenditure during some of the world’s longest, most grueling sporting events suggests that no matter what the activity, everyone hits the same metabolic limit, likely due to constraints on the digestive tract’s ability to break down food. Picked up by The New York Times, NPR, The Guardian, The Scientist, New York Post, CNN, Jezebel, Daily Mail, Discover Magazine, Outside Magazine, Science Magazine, Cosmos, U.S. News & World Report, The Independent, Popular Science, ABC News, BBC News, Inverse, Men’s Health, Business Insider, Runner’s World, IFL Science, The Telegraph,Quartz, UPI, and New Scientist.