The ruff is a Eurasian shorebird that has a spectacular lekking behaviour where highly ornamented males compete for females. Now two groups report that males with alternative reproductive strategies carry a chromosomal rearrangement that has been maintained as a balanced genetic polymorphism for about 4 million years.
Many of the world’s approximately 117 million lakes act as wet chimneys releasing large amounts of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The most recent estimates show that CO2 emissions from the world’s lakes, water courses and reservoirs are equivalent to almost a quarter of all the carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels.
Bilingual preschool children can use digital tablets as a special resource. They can listen to books in their language, use pedagogical applications, and communicate with children in other preschools using for example Skype - a new effort of importance to minority language speaking children in particular. This is illustrated in a new thesis from Uppsala University.
A team of Swedish scientists have used national registries encompassing more than one million Swedish children to study the association between early life contact with dogs and subsequent development of asthma. The new study found that children who grew up with dogs had about 15 percent lower risk of asthma than children without dogs.
In a world first study researchers from Uppsala University, Sweden and James Cook University in Australia and have found that prey fish captured by predators release chemical cues that acts as a ‘distress call’, dramatically boosting their chances for survival. The findings are published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Using mathematical modeling and field data, researchers at the mathematics department at Uppsala University have found the basic rules that allow ants to build efficient and low cost transport networks without discarding robustness. The study is now published in the Royal Society journal Interface.
In June, Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) reported that the number of fatalities in armed conflict has increased substantially in recent years, and that 2014 was the most violent year since the end of the Cold War. New data show that also the other two types of violence analyzed by the UCDP – conflict between non-state actors and violence targeting civilians – increased substantially in 2014.
One of the major global healthcare challenges today is the increasing prevalence of obesity and overweight caused by unhealthy diets. The steering committee of the Uppsala Health Summit has decided that this pressing issue is to be the focus of next year’s Uppsala Health Summit.
The aim of Uppsala Health Summit, this summer’s international summit about antibiotic resistance, was to make real progress in combatting this threat to public health. The conclusions have now been presented in a report which provides policy makers and medical professionals with a number of concrete recommendations.
By meticulously examining sediments in China’s Yellow River, a Swedish–Chinese research group are showing that the history of tectonic and climate evolution on Earth may need to be rewritten. Their findings are published today in the highly reputed journal Nature Communications.
By detecting cancer at an early stage, or even predicting who has an increased risk of being affected, the possibilities to treat the disease can be radically improved. In an international study led from Uppsala University the researchers have discovered that apparently healthy breast cells contain genetic aberrations that can be associated with an increased risk for non-familial breast cancer.
Electrochromic windows, so-called ‘smart windows’, share a well-known problem with rechargeable batteries – their limited lifespan. Researchers at Uppsala University have now worked out an entirely new way to rejuvenate smart windows which have started to show signs of age. The study, published in the distinguished science journal Nature Materials, may open the way to other areas of application.