Former Vice Provost James Siedow, plant biochemist, dies at 73. Duke Today, November 17, 2020.
Silent mutations may have given the coronavirus an evolutionary edge
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Silent mutations may have given the coronavirus an evolutionary edge. Duke Today, October 16, 2020. RNA folding may help explain how the coronavirus became so hard to stop after it spilled over from wildlife to humans. Picked up by Forbes and Triangle Business Journal.
How malaria parasites withstand a fever’s heat
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How malaria parasites withstand a fever’s heat. Duke Today, October 5, 2020. The parasites that cause 200 million cases of malaria each year can withstand feverish temperatures that make their human hosts miserable. Now, a Duke University-led team is beginning to understand how they do it. The work could lead to new ways to fight tough-to-kill strains, researchers say.
New drug candidate found for hand, foot and mouth disease
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New drug candidate found for hand, foot and mouth disease. Duke Today, Sept. 22, 2020. Targeting RNA with small molecules could pave the way for new antivirals for hard-to-treat diseases. Picked up by UPI, Futurity and Triangle Business Journal.
Male baboons with female friends live longer
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Male baboons with female friends live longer. Duke Today, Sept. 21, 2020. Opposite-sex friendships can have non-romantic benefits. And not just for people, but for our primate cousins, too. Picked up by The New York Times, The Independent, Washington Post, IFLScience, Treehugger, CBC Radio’s Quirks and Quarks, Futurity, the Weather Channel and Cosmos.
Your cells look young for their age, compared to a chimp’s
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Your cells look young for their age, compared to a chimp’s. Duke Today, Sept. 21, 2020. Why do humans live so much longer on average than our closest primate relatives, despite being 99% identical genetically? Research suggests the epigenetic aging clock ticks slower for humans than for chimpanzees. Picked up by ZME Science.
Baboon matriarchs enjoy less stress
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Baboon matriarchs enjoy less stress. Duke Today, Sept. 9, 2020. Inheriting a top spot can make for a more carefree life — and apparently not just for humans, but for baboons too.
Songbirds, like people, sing better after warming up
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Songbirds, like people, sing better after warming up. Duke Today, August 18, 2020. Researchers say there may be a good reason why birds are most vocal at first light. By singing early and often, birds perform better during the day. Picked up by CNN, the Daily Mail, The Times and The Telegraph.
Tracking tiny moving targets
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Tracking tiny moving targets. Duke Research blog, July 28, 2020. Kevin Welsher has developed a technique that turns a microscope into a ‘flight tracker’ for molecules, making it possible to follow the paths of viruses and other particles thousands of times smaller than the period at the end of this sentence.
Young dolphins pick their friends wisely
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Young dolphins pick their friends wisely. July 23, 2020. Young dolphins seek out peers and activities that will set them up for success in adulthood.
Ultra-black skin allows some fish to lurk unseen
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Ultra-black skin allows some fish to lurk unseen. Duke Today, July 16, 2020. Scientists report that at least 16 species of deep-sea fish have evolved ultra-black skin that absorbs more than 99.5% of the light that hits them, making them nearly impossible to pick out from the shadows. Picked by The New York Times, WIRED, Newsweek, Science News, Fox News, NBC News, CBS News, Ars Technica, Popular Science, Gizmodo, CNN and Reuters.
Imaging a living scaffold
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Imaging a living scaffold. Duke Today, July 7, 2020. Light-up proteins in the sheet-like matrix that encases tissues offer new toolkit for studying everything from kidney disease to aging.
From the lab, the first cartilage-mimicking gel that’s strong enough for knees
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From the lab, the first cartilage-mimicking gel that’s strong enough for knees. Duke Today, June 26, 2020. Cartilage provides a combination of cushiony-yet-strong that hydrogels haven’t been able to match, until now. Picked up by Futurity and New Atlas.
Artificial intelligence makes blurry faces look more than 60 times sharper
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Artificial intelligence makes blurry faces look more than 60 times sharper. Duke Today, June 12, 2020. Researchers have developed an AI tool that can turn blurry faces into eerily convincing computer-generated portraits, in finer detail than ever before. Picked up by Newsweek, Inverse, ZME Science, the Independent, and the Daily Mail.
Lights in the eyes for better disguise
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Lights in the eyes for better disguise. Duke Today, June 11, 2020. This hatchetfish hides from predators swimming in the shadowy depths below using a clever disguise. Glowing spots on its belly make it nearly invisible against the sunlit waters above. But the fish’s eyes point upward — How does it adjust its underside lights to blend in with the faint light filtering down from above if it can’t see its belly?
These students taught a computer to detect COVID-19 in lung scans
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These students taught a computer to detect COVID-19 in lung scans. Duke Today, May 31, 2020. A lot of illnesses can look like COVID-19 in a CT scan. Duke students built an AI tool to spot telltale signs of the virus and flag cases that swab tests miss.
Meet the Duke dean whose obsession with ‘Star Trek’ landed him a gig as their next science consultant
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Meet the Duke dean whose obsession with ‘Star Trek’ landed him a gig as their next science consultant. May 18, 2020. A Q&A with Dean of Natural Sciences Mohamed Noor about his new role.
How a male fly knows when to make a move on a mate
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How a male fly knows when to make a move on a mate. Duke Today, May 22, 2020. Male fruit flies dial their scent sensitivity up or down to court when conditions are right for mating — research that could point to new ways to treat sensory processing disorders in humans.
Malaria parasite ticks to its own internal clock
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Malaria parasite ticks to its own internal clock. Duke Today, May 14, 2020. Researchers have long known that all of the millions of malaria parasites within an infected person’s body move through their cell cycle at the same time. They multiply in sync inside red blood cells, then burst out in unison every few days. But how the parasites keep time was unclear. Now, a study finds that malaria has its own internal clock that causes thousands of genes to ramp up and down at regular intervals. Picked up by The Scientist, Cosmos Magazine, and Science News.
Stream pollution from mountaintop mining doesn’t stay put in the water
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Stream pollution from mountaintop mining doesn’t stay put in the water. Duke Today, April 6, 2020. Duke University researchers have found high levels of selenium in aquatic insects and the spiders that feed on them downstream from a major coal mining site in southern West Virginia.
To make ultra-black materials that won’t weigh things down, consider the butterfly
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To make ultra-black materials that won’t weigh things down, consider the butterfly. Duke Today, March 10, 2020. Some butterflies have ultra-black wings that rival the blackest materials made by humans, using wing scales that are only a fraction as thick. Now, researchers have figured out how they make ultra-thin substances that soak up all the light. Picked up by CNET and MSN.com.
Adolescent male chimps still need their mamas
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Adolescent male chimps still need their mamas. Duke Today, February 17, 2020. A chimpanzee mom’s continued presence through her son’s tween and teen years boosts his odds of survival later in life. Picked up by Futurity, ABC 14 News and the Daily Mail.
Cataloging all that creeps and slithers
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Cataloging all the creeps and slithers. Duke Today, January 29, 2020. In the past year, more than 40 volunteers have signed up to spend their free time looking for scaly or slimy creatures that most people avoid. They’re part of a data collection effort to take stock of the reptiles and amphibians that live in Duke Forest.
A new look at ancient handwriting
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A new look at ancient handwriting. 1100 Words on Duke Research, Jan. 23, 2020. Researchers have been analyzing the Old Hebrew script on 2,800-year-old pottery fragments from biblical times, with help from artificial intelligence.
Female chimps with powerful moms are less likely to leave home
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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.