Through new research, experts at the University of Plymouth aimed to provide the first assessment of the extent and diversity of the brachyuran land crab trade on a global level. They believe knowing the extent to which various species are traded will allow conservationists and policymakers to make informed decisions regarding legislation that monitors global imports and exports, and the wild catch of such species.

Across cultures, the way we soothe an unsettled baby tends to look much the same: hold them close and gently rub their back. The act is so familiar that it's easy to forget how little is actually understood about why it works.

A research team led by researchers at Toho University in Japan has now put that everyday act to the test, comparing several spots a caregiver might stroke. One stood out: the back. Only back stroking reliably quieted infants' movements, and the same held true in newborn mice. In the mice, where the team could look in much more detail, this calming response turned out not to be built in at birth: it developed only in pups that had received normal maternal care, and it depended in part on a gene active in the hypothalamus, Cacna1b. The findings appear in Communications Biology.

In human infants, the team tracked one shared sign of calm — a drop in spontaneous movement. In mouse pups, back stroking did more: it slowed the heart, sped the onset of sleep, and blunted the surge of stress hormones that normally follows separation from the mother.

A paper published in the leading journal Molecular Psychiatry on Friday 3 July at 1am British Summer time led by researchers from Queen Mary University of London and Royal Holloway, University of London challenges the way we think about neurodevelopmental conditions. The study suggests it would be better for experts to focus on a broad constellation of traits (a “neurodevelopmental spectrum”) to identify potential challenges and support children and young people, rather than looking at individual conditions like autism, ADHD, and dyslexia in isolation.

Southern right whales appear to be more flexible in what they eat than scientists had realised, potentially helping the whales to adapt as climate change alters the availability of their preferred prey in the Southern Ocean.

Fungi have given medicine some of its biggest breakthroughs, from penicillin to cholesterol-lowering statins, yet most of the kingdom remains a genetic black box. Now Penn engineers led by Xue ‘Sherry’ Gao have built a gene-editing tool specifically for fungi and used it to switch long-silent drug-producing gene pathways back on. They surfaced eight new molecules—three with promising anti-cancer activity in cell lines.

A tiny zebrafish, separated from us by more than 400 million years of evolution, sorts and then combines its senses in the forebrain using the same organising principles as the mammalian cortex, even though it routes the world through a different brain structure. That is the finding reported in Science by researchers at the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience at NTNU in Trondheim. It suggests that this way of building a sensing, adaptable brain is not a mammalian invention, but a solution evolution has reached more than once along separate roads.

Western toads in Alberta and British Columbia are genetically distinct populations; Alberta’s toads hold distinct mating call that sets it apart; the species’ unique genetic makeup in Alberta showcases Canada’s biodiversity.

Throughout human ecological history, we have played a variety of roles within ecosystems around the world. In this so-called Anthropocene era, genomic innovations have given us new and powerful ways to influence the environment and the countless species with whom we share the planet. In two new publications, a team of researchers is calling upon their scientific colleagues and society as a whole to approach the use of these tools with ethical deliberation, in consultation with Indigenous Peoples and with the goal of holistically supporting ecosystems.

Both publications were collaborative efforts that carry forward the goals of the Center for Indigenous Science at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology. The first, published in Ethnobiology Letters, focused on strategic and ethical considerations of species “de-extinction” using genomic technologies. The second, appearing in Conservation Biology, explored broader concerns related to nonhuman genomic data use in conservation.

Embedded in the boundary between the inside and outside of each cell are membrane proteins. They act as first responders by sensing signals, regulating which molecules enter and leave the cell, and enabling cells to quickly adapt to changes in their environment. The membrane protein surface repels water. Its hydrophobic nature has complicated the development of therapies and vaccines that target membrane proteins. Researchers have now found a way to keep membrane proteins intact in water, without using detergents, by surrounding them with custom-designed proteins. The discovery could help overcome some obtacles in biomedical research, for example, in vaccine development against certain bacterial infections.