SPACE/COSMOS

Space tourists' experience might be affected by how their parasympathetic nervous system functions, per study of novice passengers during and after zero-gravity parabolic flights

PLOS

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Impact of 0g parabolic flights on space tourists experience.

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Credit: Barbara Le Roy, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

 

 

Article URL: https://plos.io/4i5KjCB

Article title: Effects of repeated gravity changes during parabolic flight: Evidence of the need to assist space tourists to outer space

Author countries: France

Funding: This research has received a grant from the CNES (number 4800001159). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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Journal

PLOS One

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0320588 

Article Title

Effects of repeated gravity changes during parabolic flight: Evidence of the need to assist space tourists to outer space

Article Publication Date

23-Apr-2025

SETI Institute to honor contributions to exoplanet research with its Carl Sagan Center Director’s Award

The CSC Director’s Award honors SETI Institute scientists for outstanding achievements in astrobiology, technology, and exploration of life in the universe.

SETI Institute

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Dr. Joseph Twicken

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Credit: SETI Institute

SETI Institute to Honor Contributions to Exoplanet Research with its Carl Sagan Center Director’s Award

April 23, 2025, Mountain View, CA – The SETI Institute will recognize Dr. Joseph Twicken, Senior Data Scientist at the SETI Institute, with its 2025 Carl Sagan Center (CSC) Director’s Award. Now serving as the Lead Data Scientist in the TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) Science Processing Center, Twicken’s contributions to the Kepler Mission included designing, implementing, operating, maintaining and documenting the mission’s Data Processing Pipeline. Kepler revolutionized exoplanet science, discovering and confirming nearly 3,000 exoplanets and fundamentally changing our understanding of planets beyond our solar system.

SETI Institute to Honor Contributions to Exoplanet Research with its Carl Sagan Center Director’s Award CSC Director’s Award honors SETI Institute scientists for outstanding achievements in astrobiology, technology, and exploration of life in the universe. Beyond excellence in science, the awardees must demonstrate their commitment to mentoring and educating the next generation of scientists and sharing the excitement of exploration and discovery with the public. The SETI Institute’s Science Council peers select the recipient presented annually during the Drake Awards celebration.

The award pays homage to the legacy of Carl Sagan, a former SETI Institute Board member, whose pioneering work in space science continues to inspire scientists and the public.

“Dr. Twicken has been central to the success of both the Kepler and TESS exoplanet finding missions,” said Dr. Jeffrey Smith, SETI Institute Data Scientist. “There is no other person who has done more technical work to ensure both the Kepler and TESS pipelines, and science results are a success. Joe has helped countless scientists with the interpretation of the Kepler and TESS data products and has contributed to so many discovery papers. He has been a great mentor to many people, including myself, who have ventured into Kepler and TESS science research.”

“Joseph’s work has shaped some of the most important discoveries in exoplanet science,” said Dr. Nathalie Cabrol, Director, Carl Sagan Center for Research at the SETI Institute. “From Kepler to TESS, his deep expertise in data science and unwavering dedication have helped open new windows on the cosmos. We are deeply grateful for his presence at the SETI Institute, not only for the brilliance he brings to our mission, but for the integrity, kindness, and quiet excellence that define his every contribution.”

Twicken’s ongoing work with TESS continues to influence our perception of the cosmos. By the end of TESS’ second extended mission in September 2025, the satellite will have surveyed 97% of the sky at least once. TESS has confirmed over 600 exoplanets and nearly 5,000 more candidates are awaiting confirmation.

“I have been fortunate to help enable the exoplanet science revolution,” said Twicken. “As a Senior SETI Institute Scientist, I played a key role in developing the data processing pipelines for NASA’s Kepler and TESS missions. It has been highly gratifying to serve the greater good of the exoplanet science community. With each discovery and follow-up observation, we take another step in the historic search for life beyond Earth.”

The SETI Institute will also present the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Award of Excellence to Sophie Clark, an undergraduate at the University of Florida, who participated in the SETI Institute’s REU program. Clark worked with Dr. Uma Gorti, SETI Institute Research Scientist, on a project exploring protoplanetary disk winds – streams of gas that flow out from the disks surrounding young stars. These winds help the disks shed angular momentum (spin) and transport mass, enabling stars and planets to form.

“Sophie was a truly exceptional intern, far exceeding my expectations at every turn,” said Dr. Uma Gorti, SETI Institute Research Scientist and Clark’s mentor. “She demonstrated intellectual rigor and initiative on par with doctoral students, and her diligence resulted in the development of a model that can interpret new James Webb observations of young stars. I am excited that she has chosen to continue to work on winds for her PhD and look forward to seeing Sophie continue to excel in her career.”

“The SETI Institute REU sparked my passion for studying the dynamics of planet formation, a field I’m eager to continue exploring as a PhD student at the University of Arizona starting this fall,” said Clark.

Twicken and Clark will receive their awards at the 2025 Drake Awards on May 20, 2025, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. More information and in-person and online event tickets are here: https://www.seti.org/event/2025-drake-awards.

Dr. David Deamer and Dr. John Baross will share this year’s Drake Award in recognition of their research on the origins of life.

Sophie Clark

Credit

SETI Institute

About the SETI Institute

Founded in 1984, the SETI Institute is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary research and education organization dedicated to understanding the origins and prevalence of life and intelligence in the universe and sharing that knowledge with the world. Their research spans the physical and biological sciences and leverages data analytics, machine learning, and advanced signal detection technologies. The SETI Institute partners with industry, academia, and government agencies, including NASA and the National Science Foundation.

 

Giant extinct kangaroos preferred home to roam

Small home ranges made the ancient Australian kangaroos vulnerable to local extinction when climate change altered stable habitats

PLOS

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An image of the field site, Mount Etna, Rockhampton, central-eastern Queensland. Caves can be found on the western flank of Mount Etna.

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Credit: Chris Laurikainen Gaete, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Giant kangaroos stuck close to home and went extinct when climate change caused that home to disappear, according to a study published April 23, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Christopher Laurikainen Gaete of the University of Wollongong, Australia and colleagues.

In large mammalian herbivores, bigger body size is often correlated with a wider home range, but whether this is true for extinct Australian megaherbivores is unclear. In this study, Laurikainen Gaete and colleagues used fossil data to predict the home range of the prehistoric, giant kangaroo Protemnodon and its implications for the species’ extinction.

Strontium isotopes in animals’ fossilized teeth reflect the geology of the region where it found its food. The researchers analyzed Strontium isotopes from Protemnodon teeth from ancient rainforest deposits at Mt. Etna Caves in central Queensland and found a match only to local limestones, rather than distant rock formations. This implies that Protemnodon had a much smaller foraging range than might be expected based on body size, estimated at up to 170 kilograms.

Previous research has suggested that Protemnodon were not capable of long-distance bipedal hopping due to their large size, and body shape, which in turn may have limited their capacity to roam. This study’s authors also propose that a stable and lush rainforest habitat would have provided enough food that Protemnodon had no need to range farther.

When changing climate and increasing aridity disrupted this rainforest environment around 280,000 years ago, small foraging ranges may have left Protemnodon unable to find greener pastures, leading to the local extinction of these giant kangaroos. Further research will be needed to determine if it was a common pattern for Australian giant marsupial home ranges to be correlated more with their habitat than their body size.

Chris Laurikainen Gaete adds: “Using data from modern kangaroos, we predicted these giant extinct kangaroos would have much larger home ranges. We were astounded to find that they didn’t move far at all, with ranges mirroring smaller modern kangaroo species.”

Dr. Scott Hocknull adds: “These new isotopic techniques have blown our field wide open. Imagine ancient GPS trackers—we can use the fossils to track individuals and know where they moved, what they ate, who they lived with and how they died. It’s Palaeo Big Brother.” 

  

Cross sections of megafauna enamel. Samples QML1311H-WIGL8543 to QML1312-WIGL8554. Strontium transects can be identified by a series of large depressions running along the enamel/dentine.

Credit

Laurikainen Gaete et al., 2025, PLOS One, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

 

In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS One: https://plos.io/4llQkx

Citation: Laurikainen Gaete C, Dosseto A, Arnold L, Demuro M, Lewis R, Hocknull S (2025) Megafauna mobility: Assessing the foraging range of an extinct macropodid from central eastern Queensland, Australia. PLoS ONE 20(4): e0319712. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0319712

Author countries: Australia

Funding: SAH received funding to Queensland Museum through Project DIG for chronometric dating undertaken for this work. Funders did not play any role in study design, analyses or manuscript preparation. Funder URL: https://www.museum.qld.gov.au/collections-and-research/projects/project-dig. Financial support for the TT-OSL dating research was partly provided by Australian research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship Project FT130100195 awarded to L. Arnold and FT200100816 awarded to M. Demuro. Funders did not play any role in study design, analyses or manuscript preparation. Funder URL: https://www.arc.gov.au/.

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Journal

PLOS One

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0319712 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Megafauna mobility: Assessing the foraging range of an extinct macropodid from central eastern Queensland, Australia

Article Publication Date

23-Apr-2025

 SOS SAVE OUR SHARKS

Paying fishers to release endangered catches can aid conservation, but only if done right

University of Oxford

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A fisher in KUL’s program carefully releases a Critically Endangered wedgefish. © Francesca Page

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Credit: Francesca Page

More images and video footage available via the notes section.

A new study from the University of Oxford has revealed that an incentive programme increased live releases of endangered species caught as bycatch. However, unexpectedly, the overall positive impact was reduced by some vessels increasing catches of these species. The study is the world’s first randomised controlled trial to conclusively assess the effectiveness of an incentive-based marine conservation programme, with the findings published today (23 April) in the journal Science Advances.

Large, long-lived marine animals such as sharks and rays are amongst the world’s most threatened groups, primarily due to overfishing in targeted and bycatch fisheries. In small fisheries, households rely on marine resources for their food and income, creating trade-offs between biodiversity and wellbeing outcomes. Incentives therefore can provide a cost-effective and equitable option for balancing the needs of people and biodiversity. However, incentives can also change behaviour in unexpected ways, which means their impacts need to be rigorously tested before scaling up.

Oxford researchers worked with local NGO Kebersamaan Untuk Lautan (KUL) to evaluate a pay-to-release programme that compensated fishers for safely releasing two Critically Endangered groups of species: hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna) and wedgefish (Rhynchobatus), in small-scale fisheries in Indonesia. Hammerhead sharks and wedgefish are threatened by overfishing and are often caught as bycatch during fishing for other species.

The study evaluated the first 16 months of the programme (May 2022 – Aug 2023), which involved 87 vessels randomly split into two groups; one group were eligible to receive compensatory payments for live releases while the other acted as a ‘control’ and were not offered payments. Fishers proved they had safely released hammerheads and wedgefish by taking videos on provided cameras, which needed to show the released fish safely swimming away and out of sight. The compensatory payments were in line with what the fishers could have made by selling the sharks and rays in local markets, based on previous work also conducted by the same Oxford team.

The programme proved highly successful in motivating fishers to release the Critically Endangered species: 71% of wedgefish that were caught were released, whilst 4% of caught hammerheads were released. However, the experimental evaluation revealed that the programme also encouraged some vessels to increase their catches to receive more payments at the expense of conservation goals. When this was taken into account, wedgefish mortality was only 25% lower in the treatment condition relative to the control, while hammerhead mortality was 44% higher.

The results provided critical insights for adapting KUL’s incentive programmes; since the study, KUL have 1) adjusted the amount of compensation offered to fishers, so that it is based on size classes, 2) capped the number of allowable compensated releases per vessel per week, and 3) piloted a new gear swap scheme, to avoid catches of threatened species in the first place. Although no formal analysis has been completed for the second phase, preliminary results look promising. KUL have also continued running the programmes as randomised controlled trials, together with Oxford researchers, with financial support from the UK’s Darwin Initiative.

Lead researcher Dr Hollie Booth (Department of Biology, University of Oxford) said: “Incentive-based programmes play a critical role in effective and socially just nature conservation. We can’t expect small-scale resource users to bear the majority of the costs of conservation, especially when there are wealthier and more powerful stakeholders causing major negative impacts. However, as our study has shown, incentives must be well designed and robustly evaluated to incentivise the right behaviour and ultimately deliver positive outcomes for nature and people.”

The results demonstrate that even the most careful efforts to design a conservation programme may not account for all types of real-world uncertainties and complexities – and underline the importance of piloting with experimental designs before scaling.

Senior researcher Professor Paul Ferraro (Johns Hopkins University) said: “Pay-to-release schemes for endangered species caught by local fishers are being implemented around the world. Yet these schemes tend to be implemented without anyone asking whether they actually make a difference to the catch of endangered species. It is concerning that so much money continues to be spent on conservation programs without rigorous evaluations of their impacts on biodiversity and socio-economic outcomes.”

Teuku Ridwan, Head of the Department of Marine Affairs and Fisheries of Aceh Jaya Regency said: “This initiative has had a tangible impact on strengthening the livelihoods of small-scale fishers, who form the backbone of coastal life in Aceh Jaya. We hope that the synergy between implementing organisations, fishing communities, traditional leaders, and local government continues to be strengthened to realise marine management that is just, sustainable, and rooted in local wisdom.”

The researchers highlight that taking this approach will ensure that conservation interventions can better contribute to bending the curve on biodiversity loss and delivering the Global Biodiversity Framework’s 2050 vision of ‘living in harmony with nature’.

Notes to editors

Interviews with Dr Hollie Booth are available on request: hollie.booth@biology.ox.ac.uk

More images and video footage are avaialble. These images and videos are for editorial purposes ONLY relating to this press release and MUST be credited. They MUST NOT be sold on to third parties or reused without permission. Photos must be credited to Francesca Page or Liam Webb as appropriate and are available here https://f.io/TZkxwq3T. Captions and credits are available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PGUEUn5EoXX340RmcRPUy2Oda6dZSV6y/view?usp=sharing

Videos must be credited to Liam Webb and are available here: https://f.io/5X72TcHD

A short film about the NGO Kebersamaan Untuk Lautan (‘Togetherness for the Ocean’), featuring Hollie and describing the incentives programme, is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WczLIVOEWV0

The paper ‘Conservation impacts and hidden actions in a randomized controlled trial of a marine pay-to-release program’ will be published in Science Advances on 23 April 2025 at 19:00 BST / 14:00 ET. It will be available online when the embargo lifts at: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adr1000. To view a copy of the paper under embargo, contact the Science Advances press package team at vancepak@aaas.org.

About the University of Oxford

Oxford University has been placed number 1 in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for the ninth year running, and ​number 3 in the QS World Rankings 2024. At the heart of this success are the twin-pillars of our ground-breaking research and innovation and our distinctive educational offer.

Oxford is world-famous for research and teaching excellence and home to some of the most talented people from across the globe. Our work helps the lives of millions, solving real-world problems through a huge network of partnerships and collaborations. The breadth and interdisciplinary nature of our research alongside our personalised approach to teaching sparks imaginative and inventive insights and solutions.

Through its research commercialisation arm, Oxford University Innovation, Oxford is the highest university patent filer in the UK and is ranked first in the UK for university spinouts, having created more than 300 new companies since 1988. Over a third of these companies have been created in the past five years. The university is a catalyst for prosperity in Oxfordshire and the United Kingdom, contributing £15.7 billion to the UK economy in 2018/19, and supports more than 28,000 full time jobs.

The Department of Biology is a University of Oxford department within the Maths, Physical, and Life Sciences Division. It utilises academic strength in a broad range of bioscience disciplines to tackle global challenges such as food security, biodiversity loss, climate change and global pandemics. It also helps to train and equip the biologists of the future through holistic undergraduate and graduate courses. For more information visit www.biology.ox.ac.uk.

A fisher shows a video of him safely releasing a Critically Endangered wedgefish, on the waterproof camera provided by KUL. © Francesca Page.

 

A Critically Endangered wedgefish at a local market. Aceh, Indonesia. © Francesca Page

Fisher tags wedgefish ready for release. Aceh, Indonesia. © Liam Webb

Collaboration between researchers and fishers is a key part of any successful conservation program. Aceh, Indonesia. © Francesca Page

Small-scale fishing vessels in the harbour. Aceh, Indonesia. ©
Francesca Page

Millions of Critically Endangered sharks – like the wedgefish shown here – are killed each year by becoming entangled in unselective fishing nets. © Francesca Page

Journal

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.adr1000 

Article Title

Conservation impacts and hidden actions in a randomized trial of a marine pay-to-release program

Article Publication Date

23-Apr-2025

 

By 15 months, infants begin to learn new words for objects, even those they’ve never seen

Study introduces new evidence that infants can learn words from language alone

Northwestern University

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EVANSTON, Ill. —- Human language allows us to learn new words for things we’ve never witnessed directly. We do this seamlessly, for example, in conversations, using clues from the overall context to infer a new word’s meaning.

But how early does this ability become available? And what makes it possible to create a new mental representation of an object or event that we cannot see directly?

A new study by developmental scientists at Northwestern University and Harvard University offers the first evidence that infants as young as 15 months can identify an object they have learned about from listening to language — even if the object remains hidden.

Imagine an infant playing with blocks on the floor while listening to parents talk about kumquats in a conversation about more familiar fruits like apples and bananas. Might the infant form an initial representation, or gist, about what kumquat means — something edible, likely a fruit? Can they then use this initial gist later when the infant first sees a novel fruit? These are the questions the researchers sought to answer.

“Many people believe that success in word learning requires that the infant ‘map’ a new word to an object that is physically present (e.g., “Look at the kumquat!”). But in the natural course of a day, it is very common for us — and for infants — to hear words when the objects to which they refer to are not available to our immediate perception,” said senior author Sandra Waxman. “We’re asking whether infants, too, can use the conversational contexts in which a word occurs to begin to learn their meaning.”

Waxman is the Louis W. Menk Professor of Psychology, director of the Infant and Child Development Center and an Institute for Policy Research Fellow at Northwestern. The study’s co-author is Elena Luchkina, formerly a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern, and now a research scientist at Harvard.

The researchers engaged 134 infants, 67 each at 12 months and 15 months in a three-part task. First, the researchers presented infants with words they understand, paired with an image of the object to which it referred (e.g., apple, banana, grapes). Next, infants heard a new word while the image of a novel object (e.g., a kumquat) was hidden from their view. Finally, two novel objects appeared (e.g., a kumquat and a whisk) and infants were asked, e.g., “where is the kumquat?”

Fifteen-month-olds, but not 12-month-olds, looked longer at the novel fruit (e.g. kumquat) than the novel artifact (e.g., whisk). Although they had never seen any object paired with that novel word, 15-month-olds nevertheless used the context clues to identify which object was most likely the one to which the novel word referred.

“The study shows that even babies who are just beginning to say their first words learn from the language they hear, even if the objects or events being discussed are not present,” Waxman said. “Babies take in what they hear, and even if no object is present, they form a mental representation, or ‘gist’ of the new word’s meaning, one that is strong enough for them to use later when its referent object does appear.”

Waxman suggested that at 12 months, infants may not yet know enough of the familiar words they heard in the context to begin to form a representation or gist of the new word’s meaning (e.g., that it is likely another fruit).

Gleaning the meaning of kumquat
By introducing infants to novel words in the absence of any visible object, the researchers devised a powerful test of how much infants can learn about the meaning of a novel word based on language input alone.

The study provides new insight for the developmental origins of the human capacity to learn about things that are not perceptually present. It also begins to address how, and how early, the human mind can create mental representations of objects and events never witnessed directly.

This new work also highlights the power of language in infants’ daily lives. In listening to conversations and in book-reading, infants often hear words that they don’t yet understand, and that they cannot ‘map’ immediately to an object or event. The results of this study show that by 15 months, infants spontaneously use the linguistic context in which a new word occurs to build a gist of its meaning that will support subsequent learning.

“When we hear new words, like “kumquat” in conversation when there are no kumquats around, we don’t waste the opportunity to home in its meaning,” Waxman said. “We now know this is also true about tiny babies.”

The paper “Semantic priming supports infants’ ability to learn names of unseen objects” will be published by PLOS One on April 23 at 2 p.m. EDT.

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Journal

PLOS One

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0321775 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

By 15 months, infants begin to learn new words for objects, even those they’ve never seen

Article Publication Date

23-Apr-2025