news 2017

Sexualized representations, especially the emphasis of secondary sexual characteristics, can change the way we perceive an individual. An international team of researchers led by Giorgia Silani from the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Vienna has shown that empathic feelings and brain responses are reduced when we observe the emotions of sexualized women.

Multidrug resistance of microbes poses a serious global threat to human health. Such resistant strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae significantly reduce therapeutic options for the treatment of Klebsiella-induced, potentially fatal pneumonia or sepsis.

The Goffin's cockatoo is not a specialised tool user in the wild but has shown the capacity to invent and use different types of tools in captivity. Now cognitive biologists from the University of Vienna and the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna tested these parrots in a tool use task, requiring the birds to move objects in relation to a surface.

Illnesses such as cancer and multiple sclerosis may also be associated with lipids. Disorders are difficult to assess due to the diversity of lipids. Graz scientists present a new tool for the analysis of lipids in Nature Methods. No lipids, no life. In all organisms, lipids form cell walls, store energy and release it when necessary, and play an important role in cell signalling.

Scientists around Tetyana Milojevic from the Faculty of Chemistry at the University of Vienna are in search of unique biosignatures, which are left on synthetic extraterrestrial minerals by microbial activity. The biochemist and astrobiologist investigates these signatures at her own miniaturized "Mars farm" where she can observe interactions between the archaeon Metallosphaera sedula and Mars-like rocks.

Hatching eggs in large-scale hatcheries are currently treated with formaldehyde to eliminate germs. Researchers from TU Graz, acib and Roombiotic have now developed a natural alternative. There was a Europe-wide outcry in the summer of 2017 as it emerged that hatching eggs were being treated with the insecticide fipronil, which is harmful to health.

Women born by Caesarean section due to a fetopelvic disproportion (FDP) are more than twice as likely to develop FDP when giving birth than women born naturally. This is the conclusion of a study by a team of evolutionary biologists at the University of Vienna headed by Philipp Mitteroecker. Using a mathematical model, the team was able to explain the paradoxical phenomenon that natural selection did not lead to the reduction in the rates of obstructed labour.

TU Graz researchers observe enzymes breaking down cellulose to aid the production of biofuels. The results are now published in Nature Communications. Biofuels obtained from biomass are becoming increasingly important. Apart from biomethane, however, they cannot be produced efficiently, cheaply and sustainably since the current technological complexity and costs are still too high.

Even though science is becoming increasingly competitive, scientists are still very willing to share their work with colleagues. This is especially true for male scientists among each other and less so for females among each other or between the sexes. These patterns of sharing among scientists were discovered by a team of Austrian, Dutch and German researchers led by Jorg Massen of the Department of Cognitive Biology at the University of Vienna, and the results of their study have been published in the scientific journal "Scientific Reports".

Pearl millet genome sequence provides a resource to improve agronomic traits in extreme environments An international consortium under the lead of the non-profit organization "International Crops Res

Women rate photographs of male faces as more attractive and are more likely to date the men pictured when they have previously heard music. Moreover, highly arousing music led to the largest effect on sexual attraction. A team of psychologists led by Manuela Marin (University of Innsbruck) and Helmut Leder (University of Vienna) explains the significance of this finding in relation to the origins of music in their latest publication in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.

How did the gut, the skin and musculature evolve? This question concerns scientists for more than a century.

TU Graz researchers develop new brain-computer interface application which allows music to be composed by the power of thought. How this works is shown in the current issue of the journal PLOS ONE. Brain-computer interfaces, known as BCI, can replace bodily functions to a certain degree. Thanks to BCI, physically impaired persons can control special prostheses through the power of their minds, surf in internet and write emails.

The bending of a hook into wire to fish for the handle of a basket by the crow Betty 15 years ago stunned the scientific world. However, the finding was recently relegated as similar behavioural routines were discovered in the natural repertoire of the same species, suggesting the possibility that Betty's tool manufacture was less intelligent than previously believed.

Behavior experiments are useful tools to study brain function. Standard experiments to investigate behavior in popular lab animals such as fish, flies or mice however only incompletely mimic natural conditions. The understanding of behavior and brain function is thus limited. Virtual Reality (VR) helps in generating a more natural experimental environment but requires immobilization of the animal, disrupting sensorimotor experience and causing altered neuronal and behavioral responses.

Researchers from ETH Zurich and the University of Vienna have discovered a type of bacteria that uses tiny daggers to prevent itself from being eaten by amoebae. The scientists also resolved the three-dimensional structure of the mechanism that allows the micro-daggers to be shot quickly. Bacteria have to watch out for amoeba.

Flowering plants with at least 300,000 species are by far the most diverse group of plants on Earth. They include almost all the species used by people for food, medicine, and many other purposes. However, flowering plants arose only about 140 million years ago, quite late in the evolution of plants, toward the end of the age of the dinosaurs, but since then have diversified spectacularly.

By Martina Geier The pharma industry is in search of sustainable and cost-effective manufacturing processes for drugs. In the "CHEM21" project, project teams from TU Graz and acib developed genetic tools to provide tailored microorganisms for quick and straight forward drug production approaches. Classical drug production processes often require up to 100 kg of raw materials to manufacture 1 kg of the active ingredient of a drug.

American alligators produce loud, low-frequency vocalizations called "bellows". Cognitive biologists at the University of Vienna, Stephan Reber and Tecumseh Fitch, investigated these vocalizations and found that they reveal the caller's body size. Alligators can use this information to avoid unpromising contests for mates and breeding areas.

A new bioinformatics tool to compare genome data has been developed by teams from the Max F. Perutz Laboratories, a joint venture of the University of Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna, together with researchers from Australia and Canada. The program called 'ModelFinder' uses a fast algorithm and allows previously not attainable new insights into evolution.