Category Archives: press release

Models predict where lemurs will go as climate warms

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Models predict where lemurs will go as climate warms. Duke Today, Feb. 18, 2015. Climate change is likely to leave a lot of lemurs looking for new places to live on their island home of Madagascar. A Duke study predicts where lemurs are likely to seek refuge as temperatures rise between now and 2080. The researchers identified three areas on the island that will be particularly important for lemurs in the future, as well as key corridors that will allow lemurs to reach these areas from their current spots. Picked up by Scientific American, Science Magazine, Science News and BBC.

 

Distant species produce love child after 60 M year breakup

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Distant species produce love child after 60 M year breakup. Duke Today, Feb. 13, 2015. A delicate woodland fern discovered in the mountains of France is the love child of two distantly-related groups of plants that haven’t interbred in 60 million years, genetic analyses show. Reproducing after such a long evolutionary breakup is akin to an elephant hybridizing with a manatee, or a human with a lemur, the researchers say. Picked up by Nature and by National Public Radio.

Apes prefer the glass half full

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Apes prefer the glass half full. Duke Today, Feb. 11, 2015. Humans aren’t the only species to be influenced by spin. Our closest primate relatives are susceptible, too. For example, people rate a burger as more tasty when it is described as “75 percent lean” than when it is described as “25 percent fat,” even though that’s the same thing. A Duke University study finds that positive and negative framing make a big difference for chimpanzees and bonobos too. Picked up by the Daily Mail and Scientific American.

Humans, sparrows make sense of sounds in similar ways

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Humans, sparrows make sense of sounds in similar ways. Duke Today, Jan. 5, 2015. The song of the swamp sparrow — a grey-breasted bird found in wetlands throughout much of North America — is a simple melodious trill. But according to a new study by researchers at Duke University and the University of London, swamp sparrows are capable of processing the notes that make up their simple songs in more sophisticated ways than previously realized — an ability that may help researchers better understand the perceptual building blocks that enable language in humans. Picked up by The Herald-Sun, Wildlife Magazine and The New York Times.

Predicting superbugs’ countermoves to new drugs

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Predicting superbugs’ countermoves to new drugs. Duke Today, Jan. 5, 2015. With drug-resistant bacteria on the rise, even common infections that were easily controlled for decades are proving trickier to treat with standard antibiotics. New drugs are desperately needed, but so are ways to maximize the effective lifespan of these drugs. To accomplish that, Duke University researchers used software they developed to predict a constantly-evolving infectious bacterium’s countermoves to one of these new drugs ahead of time, before the drug is even tested on patients. Picked up by the Duke Chronicle, The Scientist and Time Magazine.

Laser sniffs out toxic gases from afar

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Laser sniffs out toxic gases from afar. Duke Today, December 3, 2014. Scientists have developed a way to sniff out tiny amounts of toxic gases — a whiff of nerve gas, for example, or a hint of a chemical spill — from up to one kilometer away. The new technology can discriminate one type of gas from another with greater specificity than most remote sensors — even in complex mixtures of similar chemicals — and under normal atmospheric pressure, something that wasn’t thought possible before. Picked up by NPR affiliate WUNC.

Cancer-fighting drugs might also stop malaria early

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Cancer-fighting drugs might also stop malaria early. Duke Today, August 25, 2014. Scientists searching for new drugs for malaria have identified a number of compounds — some of which are in clinical trials to treat cancer — that could lead to new ways to fight the disease. Researchers identified 31 enzyme-blocking molecules, called protein kinase inhibitors, that curb malaria before symptoms start. By focusing on treatments that act early, the researchers hope to give drug-resistant strains less time to spread. Picked up by the Duke Chronicle and the Durham Herald-Sun.

Nearly 50 years of lemur data now available online

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Nearly 50 years of lemur data now available online. Duke Lemur Center, July 24, 2014. A 48-year archive of life history data for the world’s largest and most diverse collection of endangered primates is now digital and available online. The Duke Lemur Center database allows visitors to view and download data for more than 3600 animals representing 27 species of lemurs, lorises and galagos — distant primate cousins who predate monkeys and apes — with more data to be uploaded in the future. Picked up by io9 and BBC News.

Genome sequences show how lemurs fight infection

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Genome sequences show how lemurs fight infection. Duke Today, May 30, 2014. Coquerel’s sifakas are the only lemur species out of 17 at the Duke Lemur Center to fall prey to Cryptosporidium, a waterborne illness that causes weakness and diarrhea. Young sifakas are more likely to get sick, but if researchers can harness next-generation sequencing technology to figure out how older animals manage to fight the infection, they might be able to develop vaccines that provide infants the same protection. Picked up by National Geographic.

Animals with bigger brains, broader diets have better self control

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Animals with bigger brains, broader diets have better self control. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, April 24, 2014. The largest study of animal intelligence to-date finds that animals with bigger brains and broader diets have better self-control. The results are part of a long history of research aimed at understanding why some species are able to do things like make and use tools, read social cues, or even understand basic math, and others aren’t. By convincing animal experts across the globe to conduct the same set of experiments, researchers were able to test ideas about how cognitive differences in the animal kingdom came to be in a much more rigorous way than has been possible before. Picked up by The New York Times and the National Science Foundation.

Plants with dormant seeds give rise to more species

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Plants with dormant seeds give rise to more species. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, April 18, 2014. Seeds that sprout as soon as they’re planted may be good news for a garden. But wild plants need to be more careful. In the wild, a plant whose seeds sprouted at the first warm spell or rainy day would risk disaster. More than just an insurance policy against late frosts or unexpected dry spells, it turns out that seed dormancy has long-term advantages too:  Plants whose seeds put off sprouting until conditions are more certain give rise to more species, finds a new study.

Ancient DNA offers clues to how barnyard chickens came to be

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Ancient DNA offers clues to how barnyard chickens came to be. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, April 21, 2014. Ancient DNA adds a twist to the story of how barnyard chickens came to be, finds a study in the journal PNAS. Analyzing DNA from the bones of chickens that lived 200-2300 years ago in Europe, researchers report that some of the traits we associate with modern domestic chickens — such as their yellowish skin — only became widespread in the last 500 years, much more recently than previously thought. Picked up by Ars Technica, Nature and Public Radio International.

Lemurs match scent of a friend to sound of her voice

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Lemurs match scent of a friend to sound of her voice. Duke Today, April 15, 2014. Humans aren’t alone in their ability to match a voice to a face — animals such as dogs, horses, crows and monkeys are able to recognize familiar individuals this way too, a growing body of research shows. A new study finds that some animals can even match a voice to a scent. Researchers report that ring-tailed lemurs respond more strongly to the scents and sounds of female lemurs when the scent they smell and the voice they hear belong to the same female — even when she’s nowhere in sight. Picked up by the National Science Foundation and Natural History magazine (June 2014 issue).

Lemur babies of older moms are less likely to get hurt

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Lemur babies of older moms are less likely to get hurt. Duke Today, December 18, 2013. A long-term study of aggression in lemurs finds that infants born to older mothers are less likely to get hurt than those born to younger mothers. The researchers base their findings on an analysis of detailed medical records for more than 240 ring-tailed lemurs — cat-sized primates with long black-and-white banded tails — that were monitored daily from infancy to adulthood over a 35-year period at the Duke Lemur Center in North Carolina. It may be that older moms are better at fending off attackers or protecting their infants during fights, the researchers say.

Hibernating lemurs hint at the secrets of sleep

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Hibernating lemurs hint at the secrets of sleep. Duke Today, September 4, 2013. By studying hibernation, a Duke University team is providing a window into why humans sleep. Observations of a little-known primate called the fat-tailed dwarf lemur in captivity and the wild has revealed that it goes for days without the deepest part of sleep during its winter hibernation season. The findings support the idea that sleep plays a role in regulating body temperature and metabolism. Picked up by WUNC, National Geographic, NBC News, US News and World Report, Huffington Post, Futurity, Discovery News and the Los Angeles Times.

Personality test finds some mouse lemurs shy, others bold

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Personality test finds some mouse lemurs shy, others bold. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center. June 18, 2013. Anyone who has ever owned a pet will tell you that it has a unique personality. Yet only in the last 10 years has the study of animal personality started to gain ground with scientists. Now researchers have found distinct personalities in the grey mouse lemur, the tiny, saucer-eyed primate native to the African island of Madagascar. Picked up by Futurity, Audubon Magazine and National Geographic Magazine.

Primate hibernation more common than previously thought

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Primate hibernation more common than previously thought. Duke Today, May 2, 2013. Until recently, the only primate known to hibernate as a survival strategy was a creature called the western fat-tailed dwarf lemur, a tropical tree-dweller from the African island of Madagascar. But it turns out this hibernating lemur isn’t alone. In a new study, researchers report that two other little-known lemurs — Crossley’s dwarf lemur and Sibree’s dwarf lemur — burrow into the soft, spongy rainforest floor in the eastern part of Madagascar, curl up and spend the next three to seven months snoozing underground. Picked up by Futurity, New Scientist and Nature World News.

Bird fossil sheds light on how swift and hummingbird flight came to be

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Bird fossil sheds light on how swift and hummingbird flight came to be. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center. May 1, 2013. A tiny bird fossil discovered in Wyoming offers clues to the precursors of swift and hummingbird wings. The fossil is unusual in having exceptionally well-preserved feathers, which allowed the researchers to reconstruct the size and shape of the bird’s wings in ways not possible with bones alone. Picked up by Science Magazine, Science News and Discover.

Study proposes alternative way to explain life’s complexity

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Study proposes alternative way to explain life’s complexity. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center. April 12, 2013. Evolution skeptics argue that some biological structures, like the brain or the eye, are simply too complex for natural selection to explain. Biologists have proposed various ways that so-called ‘irreducibly complex’ structures could emerge incrementally over time, bit by bit. But a new study proposes an alternative route.

Uncovering Africa’s oldest known penguins

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Uncovering Africa’s oldest known penguins. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center. March 26, 2013. Africa isn’t the kind of place you might expect to find penguins. But one species lives along Africa’s southern coast today, and newly found fossils confirm that as many as four penguin species coexisted on the continent in the past. Exactly why African penguin diversity plummeted to the one species that lives there today is still a mystery, but changing sea levels may be to blame. The fossil findings represent the oldest evidence of these iconic tuxedo-clad seabirds in Africa, predating previously described fossils by 5 to 7 million years. Picked up by Discovery, NBC news, Huffington Post, the UK Daily Mail and Scientific American.