Rabbits have colonised countries worldwide, often with dire economic and ecological consequences, but their secret has before been a mystery. In a new study published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, an international consortium of scientists sequenced the genomes of nearly 300 rabbits from three continents to unveil the key genetic changes that make these animals master colonisers.
An international team of scientists has identified the oldest fossil of a sea-going reptile from the Southern Hemisphere – a nothosaur vertebra found on New Zealand’s South Island. 246 million years ago, at the beginning of the Age of Dinosaurs, New Zealand was located on the southern polar coast of a vast super-ocean called Panthalassa.
A new thesis at Uppsala University questions the traditional view of stress-induced exhaustion disorder. A new model is proposed in its place that puts more focus on meaningfulness rather than recovery.
Innate immune cells including macrophages and neutrophils have unique properties that allows them to quickly accumulate in large numbers at the site of infection or injury. A new study from researchers at Uppsala University establishes that macrophage in the adult ischemic muscle induce a phenotype switch into mural cells to support restoration of functional blood flow and thereby promote healing.
Never before have there been so many armed conflicts across the globe. This has been shown by new statistics from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, UCDP, at Uppsala University. In 2023, the number of conflicts involving states totalled 59, the highest number ever since the data collection’s starting point in 1946. Previous peaks were seen in 2020 and 2022, each with 56 conflicts.
New research: Post-war peace processes are a dangerous period for women, who are forced to live close to men who committed serious abuse during the war, which can be stigmatising. Women safety is not a political priority after war. There is great potential for improvement, if the UN were to start making more space for women’s perspectives, writes peace- and conflict researchers in PLOS One.
Two newly discovered mechanisms in bacteria have been identified that can contribute to the development of antibiotic resistance. Changing the number of copies of resistance genes in bacteria increases antibiotic resistance. These two mechanisms, along with a third known mechanism, can occur independently of each other, even within the same bacterial cell. (published in Nature Communications)
Research at Uppsala University and Karolinska Institutet could pave the way for a prosthetic hand and robot to be able to feel touch like a human hand. Their study has been published in the journal Science. The technology could also be used to help restore lost functionality to patients after a stroke.
Uppsala University Museum Gustavianum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston have reached an agreement on the return of an ancient Egyptian ceramic child sarcophagus, dated to the 19th Dynasty (1295–1186 BC). The sarcophagus belonged to a boy named Pa-nefer-neb.
A computer game helped upper secondary school students become better at distinguishing between reliable and misleading news. This is shown by a study conducted by researchers at Uppsala University and elsewhere. “The students improved their ability to identify manipulative techniques in social media posts and to distinguish between reliable and misleading news,” says Professor Thomas Nygren.
New screening tools in child health care are effective in identifying early language and communication difficulties in children. This is shown by two studies based on more than 6,000 children carried out by researchers at Uppsala University in cooperation with Region Gotland.
Scientists at Uppsala University have discovered a new class of antibiotics with potent activity against multi-drug resistant bacteria, and have shown that it cures bloodstream infections in mice. The new antibiotic class is described in an article in the scientific journal PNAS.