Latest Public Library of Science Stories

Nanoparticles have many useful applications, but also raise some potential health and ecological concerns. Now, new research shows that plastic nanoparticles are transported through the aquatic food chain and affect fish metabolism and behavior. The full report is published Feb. 22 in the open access journal PLoS ONE. Exposing fish to nanoparticles slowed their feeding behavior, and also affected metabolic parameters including weight loss and cholesterol levels and distribution. The...

Bird migration timing across North America has been affected by climate change, according to a study published Feb. 22 in the open access journal PLoS ONE. The results are based on a systematic analysis of observations from amateur birdwatchers. This citizen science approach provided access to data for 18 common North American bird species, including orioles, house wrens, and barn swallows, across an unprecedented geographical region. The researchers, led by Allen Hurlbert of University of...

Stress is known to lead to short-term escape behavior, and new research on elephants in South Africa shows that it can also cause long-term escape behavior, affecting the extent that elephants use their habitat. The work is published Feb. 22 in the open access journal PLoS ONE. The researchers, led by David Jachowski of the University of Missouri, measured levels of FGM (fecal glucocorticoid metabolite), a proxy of physiological stress, and land use patterns for three different elephant...

In this week's PLoS Medicine, Dejan Zurovac and colleagues from the Kenya Medical Research Institute/Wellcome Trust Research Program, Nairobi, Kenya discuss six areas where text messaging could improve the delivery of health services and health outcomes in malaria in Africa, including three areas transmitting information from the periphery of the health system to malaria control managers and three areas transmitting information to support management of malaria patients. The authors state:...

Fish are as good at evaluating numerical ratios as college students are, says a study published in the Feb. 15 issue of the open access journal PLoS ONE. Both the fish and the college students had to determine which of two collections of objects was larger. The students played a computerized game in which they chose the display showing more dots, without verbally counting them. The guppies were given the option to join either of two groups of fish, in adjoining tanks to each side; previous...

Providing for fundamental human needs to people who are close to death is complex and sophisticated, but ultimately involves the integration of physical, psychological, social and spiritual elements, according to a study published in this week's PLoS Medicine by a group of international researchers. End-of-life care is a major public health issue, yet despite the inevitability of death, issues related to death and dying are often taboo. This study involved identifying the variety of...

The proteins actin, myosin and titin are big players in the business of muscle contraction. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Hamburg, Germany, have now examined another muscle protein – myomesin – which they discovered can stretch up to two-and-a-half times its length, unfolding in a way that was previously unknown. The study is published 14 February in the open-access, online journal PLoS Biology. Myomesin links muscle filaments, which stretch and...

Ocean fish farming is a growing industry that may need increased monitoring and regulation, and Google Earth can be a powerful tool to that end, according to a study published in the Feb. 8 issue of the online journal PLoS ONE. The researchers, led by Pablo Trujillo of the University of British Columbia, used Google Earth satellite images of the Mediterranean to identify sites and sizes of fish farms. They examined 91% of the Mediterranean coast and counted over 21,000 fish cages, the...

Dogs are better than chimps at interpreting pointing gestures, according to a study published in the online journal PLoS ONE. Katharina Kirchhofer, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, led a team in the investigation of 20 chimps and 32 dogs presented with the same task: retrieving an object the experimenter wanted, as indicated by the experimenter pointing. The researchers found that the dogs performed well, but the chimps failed to identify the object of...

The likelihood that a man will match his language to that of a female conversation partner depends on how fertile she is, according to a study published Feb. 8 in the open access journal PLoS ONE. Linguistic alignment between conversation partners is well documented, and is often interpreted to reflect affiliation between the speakers. This study, however, reports that higher female fertility levels were associated with lower levels of linguistic matching from male conversation...