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Scientists from Oxford University and Tel Aviv University have ranked the world's most 'popular' reptiles, revealing the species that capture the public's imagination and providing valuable quantitative data towards the debate surrounding conservation priorities.

Using data taken from Wikipedia, the research team - comprising zoologists, geographers and computer scientists - found that fearsome species such as the Komodo dragon, saltwater crocodile and king cobra were of greatest interest to website users.

New knowledge: Children with ADHD sleep both poorly and less

A new study from Aarhus University has now documented that there is some truth to the claim by parents of children with ADHD that their children have more difficulty falling asleep and that they sleep more poorly than other children.

Researchers and doctors at Uppsala University, along with Swedish and international collaboration partners, have found gene variants that predict the risk of a serious adverse reaction to drugs used for the treatment of hyperthyroidism. The results are published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.

Neuherberg, Germany, May 4, 2016. Viral respiratory infections during the first six months of life are associated with an increased risk for type 1 diabetes. This is the conclusion reached by a team of scientists at the Helmholtz Zentrum München during a study published in the current issue of the renowned US magazine JAMA.

An academic from the University of Leicester has suggested that disparities in funding for the cultural sector at a regional level results in cultural institutions and programmes in many areas of the UK being deprived of vital resources.

Not only did an international research team discover two new endoparasitic wasp species in South Africa and India, and significantly expanded their genera's distributional range, but they also gave a celebrity name to a special one of them.

ITHACA, N.Y. - No self-respecting construction engineer would ever choose pure calcite - a weak, brittle mineral found in chalk - as a building material.

But what if you could somehow strengthen calcite by a factor of two or more, the way a mollusk has done through the evolutionary process to protect itself from sharp-toothed predators?

Well, you still might not choose hardened calcite to build your home, but it might have other applications that, by virtue of its availability, could make it an attractive option for low-strength fabrication needs.

Testing for health conditions usually involves needles, X-rays and other invasive or uncomfortable measures. To make diagnostics less burdensome for patients, scientists are developing alternatives, looking for disease markers in urine -- and even spit. Now a study, appearing in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research, demonstrates for the first time that individuals may have saliva "fingerprints." The finding suggests that identifying changes in these baseline fingerprints could someday be a reliable way to detect disease.

Stickleback fish are able to adapt their vision to new environments in less than 10,000 years, a blink of the eye in evolutionary terms, according to new research by University of British Columbia biodiversity experts.

"This is a very short time scale for large changes in colour vision to evolve," says Diana Rennison, lead researcher on the study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. "We'd typically expect species to adapt their vision over timespans in the millions of years."

Online information on pancreatic cancer overestimates the reading ability of the overall population and lacks accurate information about alternative therapy, according to a study published online by JAMA Surgery.

By switching from four wheels to two, bicyclists help reduce traffic and air pollution -- all while getting much-needed exercise. But that health benefit could be costly, due to exposure to potentially harmful compounds in motor vehicle exhaust. In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers analyzed breath samples to find out how much of these compounds are absorbed by the body. They report their findings in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology.

A novel way of synthesising a promising new antibiotic has been identified by scientists at the University of Bristol. By expressing the genes involved in the production of pleuromutilin in a different type of fungus, the researchers were able to increase production by more than 2,000 per cent.

Marine and terrestrial species inhabit vastly different ecosystems, but they share one of the primary patterns of biodiversity on the planet. The numbers of species of both groups increase toward the equator, with fewer species in temperate, higher latitudes and more in the tropics.

An unusual new study led by researchers from the University of Chicago shows that while terrestrial birds and marine bivalves--animals such as scallops, mussels, cockles, and oysters--share this pattern of species richness across latitudes as well, they arrive there quite differently.

• Survey conducted in Leeds, UK, and Warsaw, Poland, finds residents who think their neighbourhoods are more ethnically diverse express lower acceptance of minority ethnic groups
• Relationship between attitudes and perceived diversity depends on the neighbourhood context
• Those most prejudiced towards minority ethnic groups in Leeds are people who think they live in more diverse neighbourhoods and are in areas with a high recent influx of ethnic minorities

The oldest surviving species of vertebrates, such as the cane toad and the California sea lion, which have endured past extreme environmental events, will be more likely to adapt to future climate changes than younger species, such as the European hamster, according to a study published in the open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology. These species include those with various color morphs; those which give birth to live young; and/or which live at low latitudes.