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.

New research has shown that patients undergoing emergency surgery in lower income countries have a three times greater chance of dying than in higher income countries.

The study, published in the British Journal of Surgery, monitored post-surgery death rates and mapped them against the Human Development Index (HDI) of each country.

10,745 patients were monitored up to 30 days after undergoing emergency abdominal surgery, at hospitals in 58 participating countries.

The study showed that death rates were three times higher in low income countries than in high income countries, even after adjustment for prognostic factors such as fitness for surgery, diabetes history and smoking status.

The way we drive could help us understand how animals make their way, new research from the University of Leeds has found.

The research, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, sheds light on how our brains process what we see when at the wheel, as well as giving important insights into why animals take particular paths of travel.

In the research project, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, researchers from Leeds' School of Psychology and the Institute for Transport Studies used a virtual reality experiment to test whether human steering in a driving simulator was influenced by visual speed signals.

Nature shows how to do it: Photosynthesis is a process used by plants to create energy-rich organic compounds, usually in the form of carbohydrates, and oxygen (O2) from carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) driven by light. If we succeeded in mimicking this process on a large scale, numerous problems of humanity would probably be solved. Artificial photosynthesis could supply the Earth with fuels of high energy density such as hydrogen, methane or methanol while reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere and slowing down climate change.

"The results for tolerability, safety, and the immune response to the vaccine candidate are very promising," explains Prof Marylyn Addo. The antibodies which developed against the virus were still detectable after six months. Addo is convinced, "With this, a single vaccine could provide lasting protection against Ebola." The infectious disease specialist, who works for the German Center for Infection Research at the University Medical Center Hamburg Eppendorf (UKE) in Hamburg, led the trial in Hamburg. A total of 158 healthy adult volunteers were tested in Hamburg, as well as at the partner sites in Geneva (Switzerland), Lambaréné; (Gabon) and Kilifi (Kenya).

Earlier this year scientists presented evidence for Planet Nine, a Neptune-mass planet in an elliptical orbit 10 times farther from our Sun than Pluto. Since then theorists have puzzled over how this planet could end up in such a distant orbit.

New research by astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) examines a number of scenarios and finds that most of them have low probabilities. Therefore, the presence of Planet Nine remains a bit of a mystery.

"The evidence points to Planet Nine existing, but we can't explain for certain how it was produced," says CfA astronomer Gongjie Li, lead author on a paper accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.