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Women are more likely to suffer from insomnia and say they have lower sleep quality. Men are more likely to have sleep apnea.


Women’s circadian rhythms run earlier than men, and such disruptions have been associated with worse health outcomes.

Men tend to overeat, and male shift workers have a higher risk of Type 2 diabetes, when sleep deprived.


These and other major sleep differences are highlighted in a new review of ongoing research into sleep and gender and have implications for how women and men could be treated for sleep-related disorders.

The review by researchers at the University of Southampton, Stanford University and Harvard University is published in Sleep Medicine Reviews…..

 
The sound of an earthworm is a distinctive rasping and scrunching. Ants sound like the soothing patter of rain. A passing, tunnelling vole makes a noise like a squeaky dog’s toy repeatedly being chewed.

On a spring day at Rothamsted Research, an agricultural research institution in Hertfordshire, singing skylarks and the M1 motorway are competing for the airways.

But the attention here is on the soundscapes underfoot: a rich ecosystem with its own alien sounds. More than half of the planet’s species live in the soil, and we are just starting to tune into what they are up to.

Beetle larvae, millipedes, centipedes and woodlice have other sound signatures, and scientists are trying to decipher which sounds come from which creatures.

In a field divided up into test strips, Carlos Abrahams pushes a sensor the length of a knitting needle into the soil. With a pair of headphones on, he listens to the “poor man’s rainforest”: a dark landscape of miniature caves, tunnels and decomposing matter stewing away under our feet.

“A few ticks and clicks going on,” says Abrahams, an ecoacoustics specialist from Baker Consultants, as he listens in.


Abrahams and scientists from the University of Warwick are building up libraries of subterranean sounds. The soil makes different noises depending on the season and whether it’s night or day. Even in the afternoon when the soil has warmed up, sounds get richer, research suggests.

“The soil is such a mystery,” says Dr Jacqueline Stroud, from the University of Warwick’s Crop Centre. “This is like opening the door and seeing what is going on below ground. It’s a different way of exploring the world.”…….

www.theguardian.com

Crunching worms, squeaking voles, drumming ants: how scientists are learning to eavesdrop on the sounds of soil

More than 50% of the planet’s species live in the in the earth below our feet, but only a fraction have been identified – so far
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
www.thoughtco.com

Spiders in Space on Skylab 3

Spiders went to space as part of NASA's Skylab 3 mission. Learn about the mission and the effect microgravity had on the spiders' ability to build webs.
www.thoughtco.com www.thoughtco.com
 
news.vt.edu

Researchers develop a new way to safely boost immune cells to fight cancer

Researchers in the College of Engineering explore a cancer immunotherapy treatment that involves activating the immune cells in the body and reprogramming them to attack and destroy cancer cells. This therapeutic method frequently uses cytokines, small protein molecules that act as intercellular...
news.vt.edu news.vt.edu
 
phys.org

Light stands still in a deformed crystal

AMOLF researchers, in collaboration with Delft University of Technology, have succeeded in bringing light waves to a halt by deforming the two-dimensional photonic crystal that contains them. The researchers show that even a subtle deformation can have a substantial effect on photons in the...
phys.org
 

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