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Articles on PLOS One (journal)

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Could this be the world’s largest Fitbit? Supplied

Why it’s so important to understand how elephants sleep

By understanding sleep across animals we can gain insights into improving the quality of human sleep. It can also help to bolster conservation management strategies for the animals in question.
Modern day kangaroos exhibit a hopping form of locomotion. Leo/Flickr

Giant kangaroos were more likely to walk than hop

Extinct giant kangaroos may have been built more for walking, rather than hopping like today’s kangaroos, especially when moving slowly. These sthenurine kangaroos existed until around 30,000 years ago…
Passport officers had to decide if a person facing them was the same as the one pictured in the identity card. In this case, yes. David White

Passport staff miss one in seven fake ID checks

Staff responsible for issuing passports are no better than the average person at identifying if someone is holding a fake passport photo, my colleagues and I report in a study published in PLOS ONE today…
WANT. Dog jealousy by Shutterstock. Martina Osmy/Shutterstock

How does Fido really feel? Jealousy is not just for humans

Are animals jealous? How would we know? Scientists are educated to have a deep scepticism about attributing sophisticated mental abilities to non-human animals. Anthropomorphism is regarded as a scientific…
Good times, bad times, you know I had my share. epsos

Found: the dinosaur that survived mass extinction

A dinosaur has been found in Argentina which may have lasted beyond an extinction event that wiped out the rest of its family. The new species has been named Leinkupal laticauda, which in the language…
Cleaned out - badgers can make quick work of even spiny hedgehogs. Steve Plummer

The badger cull is not the answer to hedgehogs’ problems

What to do, when two of Britain’s most loved animals run up against each other? In a study recently published in the journal PLOS One, we found that the numbers of hedgehogs living in suburban areas in…
For days when Lucozade and a Mars bar just won’t cut it. barclakj

How eat-local palaeolithic diet kept our ancestors healthy

During the warm periods between ice ages stretching from 500,000 to 200,000 years ago, the southern parts of Britain were occupied by a species of ancient human, Homo heidelbergensis. These hunter-gatherers…
Pretty but deadly: researchers now understand how blue-green algae is linked to neurodegenerative diseases. Mark Sadowski

Toxic load: blue-green algae’s role in motor neuron disease

Scientists have known for some time now that exposure to blue-green algae is linked to increased incidence of several neurodegenerative diseases. But the reason for the link has been a mystery until now…
Girl or boy? Mum has the final say. PA

Mammalian mums control the sex of their offspring

With the royal baby due soon, there is much speculation on whether the family will be welcoming a Prince or a Princess of Cambridge. But perhaps science can tell us the answer, as new research from Stanford…
There was absolutely no evidence that reading bad news led to immediate increases in stress responses for either sex. Dani/Flickr

Forgettable study sparks sexist headlines about women remembering

Attention women of the world: according to a flood of recent news headlines (78 at last count), it’s time to stop watching the news because negative news stories stress you out more than they do men. These…
These Hadza hunter-gatherers have the same energy expenditure as modern Americans. Andreas Lederer derivative work: Joey Roe

Does hunter-gatherer history point to the cause of obesity?

Imagine this scene – a personal trainer barking at his flabby pen-pushing charges to push themselves through the pain barrier and climb those steps because “the human body wasn’t designed to sit at a computer…

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