Close to five million smuggled seahorses worth an estimated CAD$29 million were seized by authorities over a 10-year span, according to a new study that warns the scale of the trade is far larger than current data suggest. Published today in Conservation Biology, the study analyzed online seizure records from 2010 to 2021 and found smuggling incidents in 62 countries, with dried seahorses, widely used in traditional medicine, most commonly intercepted at airports in passenger baggage or shipped in sea cargo. “The nearly 300 seizures we analyzed were based only on online records and voluntary disclosures including government notices and…

A UC Riverside-led study has found that a smartphone app that tracks household water use and alerts users to leaks or excessive consumption offers a promising tool for helping California water agencies meet state-mandated conservation goals. Led by Mehdi Nemati, an assistant professor of public policy at UCR, the study found that use of the app — called Dropcountr — reduced average household water use by 6%, with even greater savings among the highest water users. Dropcountr works by interpreting water-use data from smart water meters, which many utilities originally installed for remote reading to streamline billing. The app turns…

Researchers have found that central body fat, especially around the abdomen, is more strongly linked to psoriasis risk than total body fat, particularly in women. This link between central fat and psoriasis remained consistent regardless of genetic predisposition, indicating that abdominal fat is an independent risk factor.The study in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, published by Elsevier, provides insights that could help improve early risk prediction and guide personalized prevention strategies. Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin condition that can have a significant impact on quality of life. Many individuals with psoriasis also have elevated levels of body fat. While…

A research team led by Prof. Si-Young Choi from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Department of Semiconductor Engineering at POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology) has discovered ferroelectric phenomena occurring at a subatomic scale in the natural mineral Brownmillerite, in collaboration with Prof. Jae-Kwang Lee’s team from Pusan National University as well as Prof. Woo-Seok Choi’s team from Sungkyunkwan University. The research was published on May 20 in Nature Materials. Electronic devices store data in memory units called ‘domains,’ whose minimum size limits the density of stored information. However, ferroelectric-based memory has been facing challenges…

What’s the best thing on my phone? The Merlin Bird ID app. It listens and tells you (with reasonable accuracy) what birds are around you. Recently I heard someone singing who I didn’t immediately recognize, but I thought sounded fluty and musical, like a thrush. Merlin agreed: Swainson’s thrush, a new bird for me. In the olden days, my family had LPs of bird songs. If you listened to it, you’d hear the man’s voice saying the name of the bird, the bird singing, then the name of the next bird, its song, and so forth. I am sure there…

Learning to play music by ear is challenging for most musicians, but research from a team at the University of Waterloo may help musicians-in-training find the right notes. The Waterloo team analyzed a range of YouTube videos that focused on learning music by ear and identified four simple ways music learning technology can better aid prospective musicians — helping people improve recall while listening, limiting playback to small chunks, identifying musical subsequences to memorize, and replaying notes indefinitely. “There are a lot of apps and electronic tools out there to help learn by ear from recorded music,” said Christopher Liscio,…

A pioneering method to simulate how microscopic particles move through the air could boost efforts to combat air pollution, a study suggests. Tiny particles found in exhaust fumes, wildfire smoke and other forms of airborne pollution are linked with serious health conditions such as stroke, heart disease and cancer, but predicting how they move is notoriously difficult, researchers say. Now, scientists have developed a new computer modelling approach that dramatically improves the accuracy and efficiency of simulating how so-called nanoparticles behave in the air. In practice, this could mean simulations that currently can take weeks to run could be completed…

A new study reveals the biological secret to the Zika virus’s infectious success: Zika uses host cells’ own “self-care” system of clearing away useless molecules to suppress the host proteins that the virus has employed to get into those cells in the first place. While these cell surface proteins are valuable for viral entry, they also have roles in producing an antiviral response. Before that can happen, the virus manipulates a process cells use to keep themselves healthy to lower the proteins’ activity, clearing the way for unfettered viral infection. Though other viruses, such as HIV, are known to silence…

We are thrilled to announce that David Robert Grimes and Mariana Ribeiro will join the Retraction Watch team as Sleuths in Residence starting June 1. Earlier this year we announced the Sleuth in Residence Program, an opportunity for active sleuths to have a secure and paid position while working closely with our research team on specific projects, and with our journalism team to publish their findings. Our goal is to build capacity in this space to emphasize the value of compensating and protecting the critical work of sleuths. We’re pleased to be able to bring on two Sleuths in Residence…

The immune system is regulated by a body clock and is more active during the day, scientists at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland have discovered. A breakthrough study, led by scientists at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland, has uncovered how daylight can boost the immune system’s ability to fight infections. The team focused on the most abundant immune cells in our bodies, called ‘neutrophils’, which are a type of white blood cell. These cells move quickly to the site of an infection and kill invading bacteria. The researchers used zebrafish, a small freshwater fish, as a model organism,…