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Michiel Dijkstra

6 news posts

Tiny crustaceans discovered preying on live jellyfish during harsh Arctic night

Scientists used DNA metabarcoding to show for the first time that jellyfish are an important food for amphipods during the Arctic polar night in waters off Svalbard, at a time of year when other food resources are scarce. Amphipods were not only observed to feast on ‘jelly-falls’ of dead jellyfish, but also to prey on live jellyfish. These results corroborate an ongoing ‘paradigm shift’ which recognizes that jellyfish aren’t a trophic dead-end but an important food for many marine organisms.

Health

31 Jan 2024

Virtual reality treatment for palliative care shown to help patients ‘flourish’ during relaxation therapy

Patients in palliative care often receive psychological therapy to help cope with stress. Researchers have now shown that the short-term effectiveness of a novel intervention, Flourishing-Life-of-Wish Virtual Reality Relaxation Therapy, in improving the physical and emotional well-being of patients is double that of standard-of-care coaching in diaphragmatic breathing.

Poverty and chronic inflammation have synergistic effects on mortality

Health

15 Jan 2024

Living in poverty with chronic inflammation significantly increases heart disease and cancer mortality risk, study finds

People living in poverty in the US are known to suffer increased mortality, as are people with chronic inflammation. Now, researchers have shown in an epidemiological study that these effects are not simply additive but synergistic: people living in poverty with chronic inflammation ran a 127% increased heart disease mortality risk and a 196% increased cancer mortality risk when measured over 15 years.

Robotics and AI

22 Dec 2023

Scientists develop ‘flying dragon’ robot to fight fires from a distance

Researchers have developed the Dragon Firefighter, a flying firehose that can aid human firefighters to put out the most dangerous fires. Because the design is Open Science, researchers around the world can use these plans to build their own Dragon Firefighters. The authors expect that real-world applications will be possible within a decade.

Slimming significantly alters your microbiome and brain activity

Researchers from China monitored 25 obese patients losing weight during and after intermittent energy restriction (IER) for changes in their gut bacteria and in brain regions for appetite and addiction. They showed that changes in both these compartments of the brain-gut-microbiome axis are tightly coupled in time.

US parents are aware of importance of play, but need to learn about the power of playful learning

Parents underestimate the importance of guided play in education, finds US study

Researchers surveyed the views of 1,172 parents across the US about the relative educational value of free play, guided play, and games. The results showed that parents tend to rate free play as most educational, but work needs to be done in educating US parents about the difference between free and guided play.