A new study reveals that Africa’s low rates of Zika virus outbreaks may be due to a surprising factor: the genetic makeup of local mosquito populations. Research by scientists at the High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI) at Princeton University, Institut Pasteur, and University of California, San Diego shed light on why Zika—responsible for birth defects and devastating outbreaks across the Americas from 2015–2016—remains relatively scarce in Africa, the continent where it was originally discovered. The study is scheduled to be published in The Lancet Planetary Health on December 11.

A team of researchers, led by Dr. Jamie Caldwell, an Associate Research Scholar at HMEI, found that Africa’s native mosquito populations may hold the answer. “The mosquito species that spreads Zika has two forms, each with different feeding preferences and capacity to transmit the disease,” Caldwell explains. “This genetic difference could explain why Zika has largely spared Africa despite the continent’s large mosquito populations and climate conditions favorable to mosquito activity.”

Rapid sea ice loss and ocean acidification from climate change are altering the growth and nutritional value of microscopic algae.

A study tracking the movements of dogs in protected lowland heaths in South-East England has found that those walked off-lead cause 20% more disturbance by area than those walked on the lead, potentially threatening rare ground nesting birds. The findings will be presented at the British Ecological Society’s Annual meeting.

A method called quantum ghost imaging (QGI) allow scientists to capture images at extremely low light levels. QGI also enables the use of one color to examine a sample with extremely low light and another color to form the image. The method allows detailed imaging and monitoring without damage to live plants, allowing examination of active plant processes such as photosynthesis.

In tourism and elsewhere, the term polycrisis has been used to describe the simultaneous occurrence of disparate crises in which the temporal dimensions of the past, present and future become mutually implicative. From this point of view, critical reflection on the role of tourism planning in building the future is essential since our decisions in the present have the power to shape the tourism of tomorrow. Tourism planning specifically is dedicated to the design and management of the future of tourist destinations. This study argues that beyond a strategic and efficient design and management of destinations, planning can become an ethical practice that aspires to build more desirable, fair and sustainable tourism futures

A new study has unveiled a striking connection between weight gain after the age of 35 and an increased risk of breast cancer, highlighting the urgent need for proactive weight monitoring in women's health as they age.

Breast cancer's resistance to treatment is a major hurdle in improving patient outcomes. 

Deep meditation is often described as a ‘timeless’ state, but this depiction seems to contradict the continuous alertness meditators report. In a recent paper, Dr. Akiko Frischhut from Sophia University, Japan, offers a coherent conceptualization of deep meditation and introduces the ‘Extended Now Interpretation’ to resolve this contradiction. Her analysis could lead to deeper insights into how time is experienced, both in fringe states of consciousness and in everyday life.

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have demonstrated that the brain's ability to learn certain skills can be significantly enhanced if both the brain and nervous system are primed by carefully-calibrated, precisely-timed electrical and magnetic stimulations. This new research has the potential to open entirely new perspectives in rehabilitation and possibly elite sports.