Media Coverage: June roundup of eLife papers in the news

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In our latest monthly media coverage roundup, we highlight the top mentions that eLife papers generated in June. You can view the coverage, along with the related research articles, below:

Lammer et al.’s Research Article, ‘Impact of social isolation on grey matter structure and cognitive functions: A population-based longitudinal neuroimaging study’, was featured in:

• Neuroscience News – Social Bonds Protect Aging Brains
• Scinexx (Germany) – Loneliness ages our brains (translated)
• UOL (Brazil) – Lack of Social Contact Makes Our Brains Age Faster (translated)

This study was also summarised in the eLife press release, ‘Social contact may help preserve brain function in later life’.

Berger et al.’s Research Articles/Reviewed Preprints, ‘Evidence for deliberate burial of the dead by homo naledi’, ‘241,000 to 335,000 Years Old Rock Engravings Made by Homo naledi in the Rising Star Cave system, South Africa’ and ‘Burials and engravings in a small-brained hominin, Homo naledi, from the late Pleistocene: contexts and evolutionary implications’, were picked up by:

• National Geographic – New Evidence Suggests Intentional Burials and Use of Symbols by Other Hominins Hundreds of Thousands of Years Before Homo sapiens
• Discover Magazine – Were These 335,000-Year-Old Hominins The First to Bury Their Dead?
• The Economist – A tiny, ancient hominin may have been surprisingly clever
• CNN Español – Mysterious species buried its dead and carved symbols 100,000 years before humans (translated)
• Science News – Homo naledi may have dug cave graves and carved marks into cave walls
• Wired (Italy) – The world's oldest burial sites have been discovered (translated)

Mastwal et al.’s Research Article/Reviewed Preprint, ‘Adolescent neurostimulation of dopamine circuit reverses genetic deficits in frontal cortex function’, was featured in:

• Neuroscience News – Shaping Young Minds: Neurodevelopment Interventions for Psychiatric Disorders
• SciTechDaily – Researchers Discover Potential Target for Treating Neuropsychiatric Disorders Like Autism and Schizophrenia in Teens

Levakov et al.’s Research Article, ‘The effect of weight loss following 18 months of lifestyle intervention on brain age assessed with resting-state functional connectivity’, was commented on in:

• HealthNews – Eating Healthy, Avoiding ‘Junk’ Foods May Slow Brain Aging
• Nauka TV (Russia) – Mediterranean diet rejuvenates the brain (translated)
• GLAS (Russia) – Green Mediterranean diet can keep the brain youthful (translated)
• Plant Based News – Plant-Based Diet And Losing Just 1% Of Body Weight Helps Reverse Brain Aging
• VegNews – Plant-Forward Diet Associated With a Younger Brain, Suggests New Study
• Descopera (Romania) – The Mediterranean diet could rejuvenate the brain by up to 9 months (translated)
• UOL (Brazil) – Mediterranean diet may ‘rejuvenate’ brain age (translated)
• Numerama (France) – Not eating meat or junk food rejuvenates the brain (translated)
• Onet (Poland) – The Mediterranean diet has a positive effect on our brain (translated)
• Valor Econōmico (Brazil) – Mediterranean diet may slow brain ageing (translated)
• SciTechDaily – Green Mediterranean Diet: How Eating Health Can Make Your Brain Younger

Kandola et al.’s Research Article/Reviewed Preprint, ‘Pathologic polyglutamine aggregation begins with a self-poisoning polymer crystal’, was featured in:

• NPR – Huntington's spreads like ‘fire in the brain’. Scientists say they’ve found the spark
• News Medical – Scientists uncover the structure of the first step in amyloid formation for Huntington's disease

Xu et al.’s Research Article, ‘Flying squirrels use a mortise-tenon structure to fix nuts on understory twigs’, was featured in:

• Science – Some flying squirrels become carpenters to secure their snacks
• LiveScience – Flying squirrels in China have discovered a clever new trick to store nuts for longer
• Nauka TV (Russia) – tropical flying squirrels use a carpentry trick to save nuts (translated)

This study was also summarised in the eLife press release, ‘Tropical flying squirrels deploy carpentry trick to safely store nuts’.

Xu et al.’s Research Article/Reviewed Preprint, ‘Chromosome-level genome assembly of hadal snailfish reveals mechanisms of deep-sea adaptation in vertebrates’, was featured in:

• Cosmos Magazine – How the deepest dwelling fish survives in the Mariana Trench

This study was also summarised in the eLife press release, ‘Scientists reveal how deepest sea dwellers adapted to their environment’.

Guss et al.’s Research Article/Reviewed Preprint, ‘Loss of the extracellular matrix protein Perlecan disrupts axonal and synaptic stability during Drosophila development’, was featured in:

• SciTechDaily – Key Protein Vital for Structural Integrity of Neurons – Without It Axons Break, Synapses Die

Black et al.’s Research Article, ‘UBQLN2 restrains the domesticated retrotransposon PEG10 to maintain neuronal health in ALS’, was featured in:

• MedicalNewsToday – A residue virus-like protein may contribute to ALS, an incurable neurological condition
• SciTechDaily – Remnants of Ancient Virus May Fuel ALS, a Fatal Neurodegenerative Disease

MaBouDi et al.’s Research Article, ‘How honey bees make fast and accurate decisions’, was covered in:

• Scientific American – Bees Are Astonishingly Good at Making Decisions

Pintore et al.’s Research Article, ‘Femora from an exceptionally large population of coeval ornithomimosaurs yield evidence of sexual dimorphism in extinct theropod dinosaurs’, was featured in:

• Interesting Engineering – Dinosaur thigh bones could be the secret to revealing their sex
• Radio France – The sex of dinosaurs can be seen in their femurs (translated)
• Le Monde (France) – Dinosaurs: First evidence of a difference between males and females (translated)

Pašukonis et al.’s Research Article, ‘Contrasting parental roles shape sex differences in poison frog space use but not navigational performance’, was featured in:

• IFL Science – Tiny Frogs In G-Strings Reveal Insights Into Amphibian Rainforest Navigation
• CBC Kids News – Tiny rainforest frogs get tiny pants for science

Wei et al.’s Research Article, ‘The lingering effects of Neanderthal introgression on human complex traits’, was featured in:

• Newsweek – Neanderthal DNA Could Be to Blame for Your Poor Immune System

Chafino et al.s Research Article, ‘Antagonistic role of the BTB-zinc finger transcription factors Chinmo and Broad-Complex in the juvenile/pupal transition and in growth control’, was featured in:

• Longevity Technology – Introducing Chinmo – The Youth Gene

Media contacts

1. Emily Packer
   eLife
   e.packer@elifesciences.org
   +441223855373

2. George Litchfield
   eLife
   g.litchfield@elifesciences.org

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