Category: 7. Science

A new study of long-tailed macaques suggests the monkeys seem to like some of the same kind of content that humans do: videos featuring aggression and individuals they know.

“Humans and macaques are both social animals who have a fundamental need to belong,” said Brad Bushman, co-author of the study and professor of communication at The Ohio State University.

“It’s not surprising that they both would be most interested in the video content that may help them navigate relationships in their groups.”

The study was published online recently in the journal Animal Cognition. It was led by Elisabeth H.M. Sterck, professor of animal behaviour and cognition at Utrecht University in The Netherlands.

Researchers showed two-minute videos to 28 macaques that lived at a primate research center in The Netherlands. Each macaque saw multiple videos over time featuring monkeys in their group or strangers. Each individual video showed monkeys in one of four types of activities: conflict, grooming of each other, running, or sitting.

The researchers calculated how much time the monkeys spent looking directly at the screen and their reactions while watching.

Findings showed the macaques paid the most attention to videos featuring conflicts between monkeys. Running was the next most popular type of video. Grooming and sitting attracted the least attention.

It is notable that both macaques and humans seem to be attracted to videos featuring similar content, Bushman said.

“We have plenty of research showing the popularity of violent media with humans. Now we have some evidence that other primates might also be attracted to conflict and aggression in videos,” Bushman said.

“From an evolutionary perspective, this makes sense. Both humans and other animals may be hardwired to pay attention to aggression because that is an adaptive response that increases survival,” he added.

The other significant finding of the study was that the macaques watched videos featuring members of their own group more closely than those involving strangers.

“This indicates that gathering social information on group members is more important than getting information about strangers,” Sterck said.

And seeing familiar faces on the screen isn’t just something that’s attractive to monkeys.

“When we as humans watch movies, we like to see actors we know – we like to see the stars playing in big movies more than we do actors who are not familiar to us,” Bushman said.

Findings also showed that low-ranking and less aggressive macaques paid more attention than others to the videos.

“More dominant individuals can be more confident that aggression will not affect them – they don’t have to pay attention to others as much,” Sterck said.

“Lower-ranking individuals can become an aggression victim and that may be why they pay more attention to what others are doing in the videos.”

In addition, high-strung macaques that were more easily stressed paid less attention to group members than those who did not act as stressed.

“We found that the gathering of social information from the videos differed with dominance rank and behavioral tendencies, which may reflect personality,” Sterck said.

The research involved two separate groups of macaques that live at the Biomedical Primate Research Centre in Rijswijk, The Netherlands.

The “stranger” videos that the macaques viewed were those monkeys from a third out-of-view group.

In each enclosure, there is a corridor where the macaques are accustomed to participating in cognitive tests. There were four compartments where the monkeys could watch videos on a laptop. The subjects entered the corridor on their own volition, and were isolated from other monkeys of their multi-generational group during the two-minute videos.

“The macaques are very visual animals. Their eyesight is similar to that of humans and they are very interested in watching videos,” Sterck said.

The researchers said the findings showed that humans share tendencies with our monkey relatives, including the attraction to videos with conflict.

“Even this brief exposure to aggressive media captured the attention of macaques in the study,” Bushman said. “When you see this in some of our closest primate relatives, it is easy to see why humans are so interested in violent media.”

Other co-authors of the study, all from Utrecht University, were Sophie Kamp, Ive Rouart, Lisette van den Berg, Dian Zijlmans and Tom Roth.

In the last year, there has been a surge in proteins developed by AI that will eventually be used in the treatment of everything from snakebites to cancer. What would normally take decades for a scientist to create – a custom-made protein for a particular disease – can now be done in seconds.

For the first time, Australian scientists have used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to generate a ready-to-use biological protein, in this case, one that can kill antibiotic resistant bacteria like E. coli.

This study, published in Nature Communications, provides a new way to combat the growing crisis caused by antibiotic resistant super bugs. By using AI in this way, Australian science has now joined countries like the US and China having developed AI platforms capable of rapidly generating thousands of ready-to-use proteins, paving the way for faster, more affordable drug development and diagnostics that could transform biomedical research and patient care.

The Nature Communications paper is co-led by Dr. Rhys Grinter and Associate Professor Gavin Knott, a Snow Medical Fellow, who lead the new AI Protein Design Program (https://www.monash.edu/discovery-institute/research/ai-protein-design-program) with nodes at the University of Melbourne Bio21 Institute and Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute.

According to Dr. Grinter and A/Prof. Knott, the AI Protein Design Platform used in this work is the first in Australia that models the work done by David Baker (who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry last year) developing an end-to-end approach that could create a wide range of proteins. “These proteins are now being developed as pharmaceuticals, vaccines, nanomaterials and tiny sensors, with many other applications yet to be tested” Associate Professor Knott said.

For this study, the AI Protein Design Platform used AI-driven protein design tools that are freely available for scientists everywhere. “It’s important to democratize protein design so that the whole world has the ability to leverage these tools,” said Daniel Fox, the PhD student who performed most of the experimental work for the study. “Using these tools and those we are developing in-house, we can engineer proteins to bind a specific target site or ligand, as inhibitors, agonists or antagonists, or engineered enzymes with improved activity and stability.”

According to Dr Grinter, currently proteins used in the treatment of diseases like cancer or infections are derived from nature and repurposed through rational design or in vitro evolution and selection. “These new methods in deep learning enable efficient de novo design of proteins with specific characteristics and functions, lowering the cost and accelerating the development of novel protein binders and engineered enzymes,” he said.

Since the work of David Baker, new tools and software are being developed, such as Bindcraft and Chai which have been incorporated into an AI Protein Design Platform co-led by Dr. Grinter and A/Prof. Knott..

Professor John Carroll, Director of the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, said the new AI Protein Design Program ‘brings Australia “right up to speed in this exciting new modality for designing novel therapeutics and research tools. It is testament to the entrepreneurial spirit of two fabulous young scientists who have worked night and day to build this capability from scratch”. 

“The Program, based at Monash University and the University of Melbourne, is run by a team of talented structural biologists and computer scientists who understand the design process from end-to-end. This in-depth knowledge of protein structure and machine learning makes us a highly agile program capable of regularly onboarding cutting edge tools in AI-protein design,” Associate Professor Knott said.

Source:

Journal reference:

Fox, D. R., et al. (2025). Inhibiting heme piracy by pathogenic Escherichia coli using de novo-designed proteins. Nature Communications. doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-60612-9.

A research group led by Dr. Keisuke Obara, Dr. Kento Yoshioka, and Professor Yoshio Tanaka from the Department of Chemical Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Toho University, has uncovered important details about how platelet-activating factor (PAF)-a powerful molecule involved in inflammation and allergic reactions-triggers contractions in the smooth muscles of the esophagus. Their findings could pave the way for new treatments targeting gastrointestinal symptoms associated with allergies, asthma, and anaphylaxis.

What is PAF?

PAF (platelet-activating factor) is a bioactive lipid molecule produced by various cells in the body, including immune cells, during inflammatory responses. It plays a major role in processes such as blood clotting, immune cell recruitment, and the onset of severe allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, by making blood vessels more permeable and stimulating smooth muscle contraction in tissues like the lungs, intestines, and esophagus.

Although PAF is essential for immune defense, excessive or misdirected PAF activity is linked to pathological conditions such as asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, and allergic reactions that affect breathing and digestion.

Study highlights

In their study, the researchers investigated how PAF causes contractions in the esophageal smooth muscle of rats-a process that contributes to symptoms like chest tightness and difficulty swallowing during allergic episodes.

They discovered that PAF triggers calcium entry into muscle cells through three distinct types of calcium channels:

• L-type voltage-dependent calcium channels (VDCCs),
• Receptor-operated calcium channels (ROCCs),
• Store-operated calcium channels (SOCCs).

Importantly, the study revealed that non-VDCC channels-particularly a protein called Orai1 that forms SOCCs-are the main drivers of PAF-induced muscle contraction in the esophagus. This challenges the traditional focus on VDCCs in smooth muscle pharmacology.

Our findings suggest that targeting these non-traditional calcium channels could offer more effective treatments for esophageal and gastrointestinal symptoms seen in allergic conditions.”

Dr. Keisuke Obara, lead researcher

Implications for future therapies

By better understanding which calcium channels PAF uses to trigger muscle contraction, the study lays the groundwork for developing new drugs that can more precisely block unwanted muscle activity without affecting normal muscle function elsewhere.

In the first study of its kind, researchers led by Keiya Hirashima at the RIKEN Center for Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences (iTHEMS) in Japan, along with colleagues from the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA) and the Flatiron Institute, have used machine learning, a type of artificial intelligence, to dramatically speed up the processing time when simulating galaxy evolution coupled with supernova explosion. This approach could help us understand the origins of our own galaxy, particularly the elements essential for life in the Milky Way.

Understanding how galaxies form is a central problem for astrophysicists. Although we know that powerful events like supernovae can drive galaxy evolution, we cannot simply look to the night sky and see it happen. Scientists rely on numerical simulations that are based on large amounts of data collected from telescopes and other devices that measure aspects of interstellar space. Simulations must account for gravity and hydrodynamics, as well as other complex aspects of astrophysical thermo-chemistry.

On top of this, they must have a high temporal resolution, meaning that the time between each 3D snapshot of the evolving galaxy must be small enough so that critical events are not missed. For example, capturing the initial phase of supernova shell expansion requires a timescale of mere hundreds of years, which is 1000 times smaller than typical simulations of interstellar space can achieve. In fact, a typical supercomputer takes 1-2 years to carry out a simulation of a relatively small galaxy at the proper temporal resolution.

Getting over this timestep bottleneck was the main goal of the new study. By incorporating AI into their data-driven model, the research group was able to match the output of a previously modeled dwarf galaxy but got the result much more quickly. “When we use our AI model, the simulation is about four times faster than a standard numerical simulation,” says Hirashima. “This corresponds to a reduction of several months to half a year’s worth of computation time. Critically, our AI-assisted simulation was able to reproduce the dynamics important for capturing galaxy evolution and matter cycles, including star formation and galaxy outflows.”

Like most machine learning models, the researchers’ new model is trained using one set of data and then becomes able to predict outcomes based on a new set of data. In this case, the model incorporated a programmed neural network and was trained on 300 simulations of an isolated supernova in a molecular cloud that massed one million of our suns. After training, the model could predict the density, temperature, and 3D velocities of gas 100,000 years after a supernova explosion. Compared with direct numerical simulations such as those performed by supercomputers, the new model yielded similar structures and star formation history but took four times less time to compute.

According to Hirashima, “our AI-assisted framework will allow high-resolution star-by-star simulations of heavy galaxies, such as the Milky Way, with the goal of predicting the origin of the solar system and the elements essential for the birth of life.”

Currently, the lab is using the new framework to run a Milky Way-sized galaxy simulation.

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A photographer approaches the craters of the active Sundhnúkur volcano on the Reykjanes peninsula near Grindavik, Iceland on June 2, 2024. John Moore / Getty Images

Ice loss from melting glaciers around the world due to global heating could cause pressure to be released from volcanic magma chambers located deep underground.

The process — already seen in Iceland — makes volcanic eruptions more frequent and powerful, according to new research conducted in the Chilean Andes.

“As glaciers retreat due to climate change, our findings suggest these volcanoes go on to erupt more frequently and more explosively,” said lead author of the research Pablo Moreno-Yaeger, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as The Guardian reported. “We found that following deglaciation, the volcano starts to erupt way more, and also changes composition.”

While eruptions are suppressed, magma melts crustal rocks, making the molten rock more viscous and setting the stage for it to be more explosive when it erupts.

Melting glaciers and ice caps could unleash wave of volcanic eruptions, study says

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— The Guardian (@theguardian.com) July 7, 2025 at 7:18 PM

“Glacial loading and unloading can impact eruptive outputs at mid- to high-latitude arc volcanoes, yet the influence on magma storage conditions remains poorly understood. Mocho-Choshuenco volcano in the Andean Southern Volcanic Zone has been impacted by the advance and retreat of the Patagonian ice sheet,” the authors of the study wrote.

The findings of the study were presented on July 8 at the Goldschmidt Conference in Prague. The research suggests that hundreds of subglacial volcanoes that have been dormant — especially in Antarctica — have the potential to become active as glacial retreat accelerates under climate change, a press release from the Goldschmidt Conference said.

Since the 1970s, scientists have been aware of the link between increased volcanic activity and retreating glaciers in Iceland. However, this is among the first studies to examine this type of event in continental volcanic systems.

The findings could help scientists better comprehend, as well as predict, volcanic activity in glacial regions.

To study how past volcanic behavior was influenced by the retreat and advance of the Patagonian Ice Sheet, the researchers used crystal analysis and argon dating across six Chilean volcanoes, including now-dormant Mocho-Choshuenco.

Melting glaciers may increase the frequency and explosiveness of volcanic eruptions, potentially impacting global climate as retreating ice reduces pressure on magma chambers beneath volcanoes.

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— Science X / Phys.org (@sciencex.bsky.social) July 7, 2025 at 7:02 PM

Through the analysis of erupted rock crystals and precisely dated earlier eruptions, the research team was able to track how the pressure and weight of glacial ice altered the characteristics of underground magma.

They discovered that thick ice cover at the peak of the last Ice Age roughly 26,000 to 18,000 years ago suppressed eruption volume, allowing a large silica-rich magma reservoir to accumulate 10 to 15 kilometers underground.

The sudden loss of weight from the rapidly melting ice sheet as the last Ice Age ended caused a relaxation of the crust and an expansion of gases in the magma. The pressure led to explosive volcanic eruptions deep within the reservoir, causing formation of the volcano.

“Glaciers tend to suppress the volume of eruptions from the volcanoes beneath them,” Moreno-Yaeger said. “The key requirement for increased explosivity is initially having a very thick glacial coverage over a magma chamber, and the trigger point is when these glaciers start to retreat, releasing pressure — which is currently happening in places like Antarctica.”

Moreno-Yaeger said the findings suggested the phenomenon wasn’t limited to Iceland, but could happen all over the world.

“Other continental regions, like parts of North America, New Zealand and Russia, also now warrant closer scientific attention,” Moreno-Yaeger said.

Although in geological terms the volcanoes’ response to glacial melt is almost instant, changes to the magma system are gradual, occurring over centuries, which provides some time for monitoring and warnings to be issued.

The team noted that an increase in volcanic activity could impact the whole planet. Eruptions release aerosols that can provide temporary cooling in the short-term. This was the case following the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991. The explosion reduced global temperatures by roughly 0.5 degrees Celsius.

However, multiple eruptions have a reverse effect.

“Over time the cumulative effect of multiple eruptions can contribute to long-term global warming because of a buildup of greenhouse gases,” Moreno-Yaeger explained. “This creates a positive feedback loop, where melting glaciers trigger eruptions, and the eruptions in turn could contribute to further warming and melting.”

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Ever been late because you misread a clock? Sometimes, the “clocks” geologists use to date events can also be misread. Unravelling Earth’s 4.5-billion-year history with rocks is tricky business.

Case in point: the discovery of an ancient meteorite impact crater was recently reported in the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia. The original study, by a different group, made headlines with the claim the crater formed 3.5 billion years ago. If true, it would be Earth’s oldest by far.

As it turns out, we’d also been investigating the same site. Our results are published in Science Advances today. While we agree that this is the site of an ancient meteorite impact, we have reached different conclusions about its age, size and significance.

Related: Record Discovery: Impact Crater in Australia’s Outback Oldest by a Billion Years

Let’s consider the claims made about this fascinating crater.

One impact crater, two versions of events

Planetary scientists search for ancient impacts to learn about Earth’s early formation. So far, nobody has found an impact crater older than the 2.23-billion-year-old Yarrabubba structure, also in Australia. (Some of the authors from both 2025 Pilbara studies were coauthors on the 2020 Yarrabubba study.)

The new contender is located in an area called North Pole Dome. Despite the name, this isn’t where Santa lives. It’s an arid, hot, ochre-stained landscape.

The first report on the new crater claimed it formed 3.5 billion years ago, and was more than 100 kilometres in diameter. It was proposed that such a large impact might have played a role in forming continental crust in the Pilbara. More speculatively, the researchers also suggested it may have influenced early life.

Our study concludes the impact actually happened much later, sometime after 2.7 billion years ago. This is at least 800 million years younger than the earlier estimate (and we think it’s probably even younger; more on that in a moment).

We also determined the crater was much smaller – about 16 km in diameter. In our view, this impact was too young and too small to have influenced continent formation or early life.

So how could two studies arrive at such different findings?

Subtle clues of an impact

The originally circular crater is deeply eroded, leaving only subtle clues on the landscape. However, among the rust-coloured basalts are unique telltale signs of meteorite impact: shatter cones.

Shatter cones are distinctive fossilised imprints of shock waves that have passed through rocks. Their unique conical shapes form under brief but immense pressure where a meteorite strikes Earth.

Both studies found shatter cones, and agree the site is an ancient impact.

This new crater also needed a name. We consulted the local Aboriginal people, the Nyamal, who shared the traditional name for this place and its people: Miralga. The “Miralga impact structure” name recognises this heritage.

Determining the timing of the impact

The impact age was estimated by field observations, as neither study found material likely to yield an impact age by radiometric dating – a method that uses measurements of radioactive isotopes.

Both studies applied a geological principle called the law of superposition. This states that rock layers get deposited one on top of another over time, so rocks on top are younger than those below.

The first group found shatter cones within and below a sedimentary layer known to have been deposited 3.47 billion years ago, but no shatter cones in younger rocks above this layer. This meant the impact occurred during deposition of the sedimentary layer.

Their observation seemed to be a “smoking gun” for an impact 3.47 billion years ago.

As it turns out, there was more to the story.

Our investigation found shatter cones in the same 3.47 billion-year-old rocks, but also in younger overlying rocks, including lavas known to have erupted 2.77 billion years ago.

The impact had to occur after the formation of the youngest rocks that contained shatter cones, meaning sometime after the 2.77-billion-year-old lavas.

At the moment, we don’t know precisely how young the crater is. We can only constrain the impact to have occurred between 2.7 billion and 400 million years ago. We’re working on dating the impact by isotopic methods, but these results aren’t yet in.

Smaller than originally thought

We made the first map showing where shatter cones are found. There are many hundreds over an area 6km across. From this map and their orientations, we calculate the original crater was about 16km in diameter.

A 16km crater is a far cry from the original estimate of more than 100km. It’s too small to have influenced the formation of continents or life. By the time of the impact, the Pilbara was already quite old.

A new connection to Mars

Science is a self-policing sport. Claims of discovery are based on data available at the time, but they often require modification based on new data or observations.

While it’s not the world’s oldest, the Miralga impact is scientifically unique, as craters formed in basalt are rare. Most basalts there formed 3.47 billion years ago, making them the oldest shocked target rocks known.

Prior to impact, these ancient basalts had been chemically altered by seawater. Sedimentary rocks nearby also contain the earliest well-established fossils on Earth. Such rocks likely covered much of early Earth and Mars.

This makes the Miralga impact structure a playground for planetary scientists studying the cratered surface (and maybe early life) of Mars. It’s an easily accessible proving ground for Mars exploration instruments and imagery, right here on Earth.

Aaron J. Cavosie, Senior Lecturer, School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Curtin University and Alec Brenner, Postdoc, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Yale University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.