The Hobbit’s bite gets a stress test

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The Hobbit’s bite gets a stress test. Duke Today, Aug. 23, 2021. If you’ve ever suffered from a sore jaw that popped or clicked when you chewed gum or crunched hard foods, you may be able to blame it on your extinct ancestors. That’s according to a study of the chewing mechanics of an ancient human relative called Homo floresiensis, which inhabited the Indonesian island of Flores before our species arrived there some 50,000 years ago. Picked up by Archaeology.

You can snuggle wolf pups all you want, they still won’t ‘get’ you quite like your dog

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You can snuggle wolf pups all you want, they still won’t ‘get’ you quite like your dog. Duke Today, July 12, 2021. If you feel like your dog gets you in a way that most other animals don’t, you’re right. New research comparing dog puppies to human-reared wolf pups offers some clues to how dogs’ unusual people-reading skills came to be. Picked up by CNN, UPI, Scientific American, Science News, Haaretz Daily, Inverse, Wired, The Miami Herald, MSN, Psychology Today, Business Insider, INDY Week and the Raleigh News & Observer.

Could better tests help reverse the rise of superbugs?

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Could better tests help reverse the rise of superbugs? Duke Today, May 16, 2019. Faster, more accurate tests for drug-resistant infections are hailed as a promising tool in the fight against antibiotic resistance, so much so that the U.S. and Britain are offering millions in prize money for their development. A modeling study led by Duke University game theorist David McAdams shows that better tests could, in theory, change the game and put drug-resistant bacteria at a reproductive disadvantage relative to more easily-treated strains — but with a caveat.

Live-in grandparents helped human ancestors get a safer night’s sleep

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Live-in grandparents helped human ancestors get a safer night’s sleep. Duke Today, July 12, 2017. A sound night’s sleep grows more elusive as people get older. But what some call insomnia may actually be an age-old survival mechanism, researchers report. A study of modern hunter-gatherers in Tanzania finds that, for people who live in groups, differences in sleep patterns commonly associated with age help ensure that at least one person is awake at all times. Picked up by The New York Times, CBS NewsNew Scientist, Discover Magazine, Science, Huffington PostDaily MailCosmosThe Guardian, BBC News, Mental Floss, Popular Science, Toronto StarReader’s Digest, USA Today and The Telegraph.

Island rodents take on nightmarish proportions

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Island rodents take on nightmarish proportions. Duke Today, June 22, 2015. Duke University researchers have analyzed size data for rodents worldwide to distinguish the truly massive mice and giant gerbils from the regular-sized rodents. They found that the furry animals with chisel-like teeth are 17 times more likely to evolve to nightmarish proportions on islands than elsewhere. The results are in keeping with an idea called the “island rule,” which previous studies claimed didn’t apply to rodents. Picked up by the Daily Mail, the Charlotte Observer, BBC, and National Public Radio’s WUNC.