Welcome to eLife Magazine Highlights – a fortnightly newsletter featuring some of the latest content published in our magazine. In today’s newsletter, discover a new tool in neuroscience, how feral pigs spread disease, and why the antibiotic-resistant bacteria MRSA infect male and female mice differently. Plus, a group of scientists discuss the results of a project to estimate the reproducibility of research in Brazil.
– Julia Deathridge, Associate Features Editor
An Antarctic krill. Credit: Lukas Hüppe (CC BY 4.0)
While many reproducibility studies focus on specific scientific fields, the scientists behind the Brazilian Reproducibility Initiative chose a different approach. They chose to examine the reproducibility of life science research conducted in their home country, arguing that “tackling the problem at a local level maximizes the chances that we can make a positive impact”. In our latest interview, the team shares the key findings from their work, and discusses what researchers, institutions, funders, and journals can learn from them.
Binge drinking during teenage years can have a lasting impact on how the brain processes pain. Research in rodents offers new clues about why this may be the case.
Antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria – commonly known as MRSA – can cause potentially life-threatening infections, placing a serious strain on healthcare systems. Although they typically live harmlessly on the skin, MRSA are also present in the digestive system of about 20% of healthy people. New research published in eLife shows that the bacteria’s ability to colonize the gut differs between male and female mice. In this Insight article, Troy Burtchett and Neal Hammer describe how the immune mechanisms underlying this difference were uncovered, highlighting the importance of studying sex as a biological variable.
Escaped pigs that have returned to the wild can wreak havoc on ecosystems, as they often carry diseases that spread to humans, livestock, and other wildlife. A group of researchers has monitored how and when Australian feral pigs interact with each other, uncovering new insights that could limit their impact in the region. You can also read an Insight article by Mercury Shitindo about this work.
Antarctic krill may be small, but they play a vital role in the ecosystem of the Southern Ocean. A new tracking system reveals what drives their nightly migrations to the surface and their daytime retreats to deeper waters.
Cells release the messenger molecule bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) as a dimer made up of either two identical or different subunits. In this Insight article, Jeet Patel and Mary Mullins discuss a recent study published in eLife that reveals how clinically relevant mutations impact these two types of dimers in distinct ways.
A new set of molecular tools allows researchers to eliminate both excitatory and inhibitory synapses in a specific and reversible way, allowing for a more refined investigation into how networks of neurons communicate.
Over the past 25 years, new technologies have revolutionized the work of many neuroscientists, allowing them to grow mini 3D brains in a dish and develop devices that can decode and modulate brain activity. These tools hold great promise for treating neurological disorders, but their use is not without ethical issues. In this article published in the Transmitter, Karen Rommelfanger explores how neuroscientists can integrate ethical thinking into their work, and why they should do so.
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