Photo of Gasteranthus extinctus.
“EXTINCTUS” NO MORE: Researchers from Chicago’s Field Museum along with local scientists in Ecuador identified wild specimens of Gasteranthus extinctus at five different forest sites in the country in 2019 and 2020, more than 35 years after its last sighting. Posted: April 19, 2022
RILEY FORTIER
Microscoping image of viral genomes.
FLU EVOLUTION TRACED: Scientists recently published a Nature Communications paper detailing their work extracting viral genomes from tissue samples of people who had the 1918 pandemic flu to illustrate the virus’s evolution as it spread and sickened millions. Posted: May 10, 2022
CDC/C. Goldsmith-Public Health Image Library #11098
Chart of immune cell infiltration into lung tissue during SARS-CoV-2 infection in healthy (A) and diabetic (B) mice, as well as in diabetic mice treated with a sugar molecule that is found at significantly lower levels in humans with diabetes (C).
THE DIABETES-COVID LINK: To describe why people with diabetes have seemed more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than people do without the metabolic disease, researchers compared immune cell infiltration (green) into lung tissue during SARS-CoV-2 infection in healthy (A) and diabetic (B) mice, as well as in diabetic mice treated with a sugar molecule that is found at significantly lower levels in humans with diabetes (C). Posted: May 16, 2022
Modified from Fig. 4G in Nat Metab, doi: 10.1038/s42255-022-00567-z, 2022
Overhead scene showing parents and juveniles of a fish species known as spiny chromis, and a predator (a peacock grouper), to learn that noise from boat engines can disrupt fish parenting, potentially affecting the survival of young.
SHHH! I’M TRYING TO PARENT: Researchers working in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef studied scenes like this one, showing parents and juveniles of a fish species known as spiny chromis, and a predator (a peacock grouper), to learn that noise from boat engines can disrupt fish parenting, potentially affecting the survival of young. Posted: May 23, 2022
S Nedelec/Fig. 4 in Nat Comms, 13:2822, 20
A female juvenile vaquita, photographed in 2017.
VAQUITAS ON THE BRINK: Researchers recently reported that highly endangered vaquitas, such as this female juvenile photographed in 2017, have low population-level genetic diversity and have existed in this state for centuries. Posted: May 6, 2022
Richard Ladkani, Terra Mater Studios, National Geographic