Royal Society Publishing

21/10/2025

Numeration systems are essential cognitive tools found in almost every human society, yet with striking variation across the globe. One key source of variation is the base used to compose larger numerals. Propositions on the origins and evolution of numeration systems abound but are scrutinized rarely and plagued by a surprising lack of consensus on what a base is. To solve these issues, this new theme issue brings together scholars from the cognitive, social, and behavioural sciences. Read: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/2025/380/1937

21/10/2025

City lizards are more social. Cities are expanding globally, exposing animals to novel ecological conditions that can alter the frequency and nature of their social interactions. Urban habitat features, such as built infrastructure and patchy resource distributions, can constrain movement and promote aggregation, potentially increasing encounters among conspecifics and introducing unique social challenges. Understanding how urbanization affects social behaviour is therefore crucial. Researchers studied common wall lizards (Podarcis muralis) to see how urban life affects their social behaviour. Social network analysis revealed that urban lizards have more social connections and stronger bonds than their non-urban counterparts. The structure of cities, with confined spaces and patchy resources, may encourage greater social tolerance, even in species that usually keep their distance. This is among the first studies to show that urbanization can boost social connectivity in a species that is typically less social, suggesting that shifts in social strategies may help animals adapt to city life.

Watch the author seminar:
https://cassyni.com/events/3Hp2UKvM6cWdk12wX59LwP

Read the article in Biology Letters:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0326

20/10/2025

Heatwaves are resulting in avian mortality events, but the role of humidity is poorly understood. Following South Africa’s first documented mass heat-related mortality event, these Biology Letters authors investigated blue waxbill (Uraeginthus angolensis) body temperature, metabolic heat, and evaporative cooling under dry and humid air conditions. Waxbills presented the highest casualties during the heat event and could serve as a model species to assess hyperthermia risks in hot and humid environments. Humidity significantly reduced evaporative cooling efficiency, lowering waxbill's maximum tolerable air temperature by ~2 °C. Modelling suggests that elevated humidity could increase waxbill's risk of lethal hyperthermia by 7-fold by the end of the century.

Read the full Biology Letters paper here:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0284

20/10/2025

The advent of a stronger, darker style of Bordeaux red wine, known as claret, in the English market has drawn substantial scholarly interest because it played a pivotal role in the balance of trade and international political economy during the eighteenth century. This new wine style also defined claret’s modern organoleptic qualities, underpinned by its ability to age for substantial periods. Most scholarship dates this to 1704 and after. Economic historians have posited that Bordeaux vignerons developed high-quality, high-priced claret in response to England’s fixed, volume-based tariffs on French wine. A new article by Charlie Leary contextualizes and analyses evidence of claret’s organoleptic qualities, including prominently Robert Boyle’s claret experiments from 1669-74, to show that the new claret style pre-existed England’s tariff regime. Boyle proved its capacity to age for years without spoiling. This related to an increasing tendency in England to bottle wine. His notes also provide an early example of a kind of modern sensory analysis that remains relevant today. Read the full paper here in Notes and Records: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsnr.2025.0010

20/10/2025

Many biological materials possess remarkable mechanical properties attributed to their multiscale hierarchical structures. These structures are tailored by biological systems to adapt to their native ecological conditions. By studying the architecture and designs of these biological systems, invaluable insights can be gained. The design principles observed in biological materials can be extracted and utilized to develop advanced engineering materials. Sea corals are usually found in shallow waters and provide a habitat for a variety of sea animals. To provide effective protection to sea species that live in corals, the skeleton of corals must exhibit excellent damage tolerance. Organ pipe coral (Tubipora musica) is a species of stony coral and consists of tubes and platforms. The skeleton of the organ pipe coral provides a habitat for tiny sea animals called polyps. This paper provides a comprehensive study on the hierarchical structure and micromechanical properties of the organ pipe coral skeleton. The hierarchical structure of the coral skeleton was probed across multiple length scales using a combination of x-ray microcomputed tomography and scanning electron microscopy. At the macroscale, the structure of the coral consisted of vertical tubes connected by horizontal platforms. On the other hand, the microstructure comprised of spherulites and an assembly of cells that were formed through a unique arrangement of plates of calcite. This unique arrangement of fibers and plates resulted in varying microstructural morphologies on the surface of the coral skeleton.

Read the article in Interface:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsif.2025.0421

20/10/2025

We are pleased to announce that throughout Open Access Week, from 20 – 26 October, all Royal Society journal content is freely available.

Each year, Open Access Week highlights a theme that encourages discussion and reflection. This year’s theme, “Who owns our knowledge?”, invites us to consider important questions of ownership, access and equity in research.

Explore our content here:

Discover new research from across the sciences.

19/10/2025

Study after study reports that participants undertaking a new exercise regimen lose weight initially but then their weight loss quickly plateaus. This happens even when their food intake doesn't increase. How can we explain this? 'Energy expenditure compensation', first recognised in animal models, is an under recognised compensatory response to heightened activity levels. This means that our bodies adaptively compensate by reducing energy expenditure elsewhere, such that if we undertake an exercise regimen, in the long run we only lose a fraction of the weight we aspire to. We need to raise awareness about energy expenditure compensation, how it can limit weight loss, and how considering this knowledge we might better prescribe 'weight loss regimens' to encourage additional weight reduction in those who aspire to it.

Read the full Biology Letters Opinion Piece here: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0275

19/10/2025

During pregnancy, foetal development depends on the umbilical cord for delivering nutrients and oxygen from the placenta to the foetus through the umbilical vein and transferring waste products back through the umbilical arteries, before they are discarded through the maternal circulatory system. Because the umbilical cord plays such a vital role during pregnancy, disruption to blood flow or abnormality in the structure of the cord could significantly affect the growth of the foetus. While scientists understand how this exchange happens in the placenta, less is known about the role of the cord’s structure itself. In this study, researchers developed mathematical models to show how the spiral shape of the blood vessels within the cord can increase the exchange of oxygen and heat. Fortunately, most cords seem to be structured in a way that prevents too much exchange, helping to keep the baby’s body temperature and oxygen supply stable before birth.

Read the article in Interface:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsif.2025.0148

18/10/2025

This Biology Letters study evaluated the performance of three ultrasound scanners—two handheld units and one cart-based — specifically for assessing the mammary glands of female Atlantic bottlenose dolphins under human care. The Sonosite Edge II provided excellent image quality but was too heavy and not waterproof for its use in sea pen habitats. In contrast, Clarius and Edge were portable and suitable for challenging environments, though they faced connectivity issues. In showing that mammary glands increase in thickness with age, this study highlights the need for consistent equipment use for organ measurements, as the variability among scanners could impact assessments and physiological interpretations.

Read the full Biology Letters evaluation here:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0230

18/10/2025

Pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) is a valuable and sustainable crop known for its resilience to climate change and high nutritional value. Although pistachios are often referred to as nuts, they are technically a type of fruit called a ‘drupe’, similar to peaches or mangoes. A pistachio has three main parts: the outer layer, named the hull, the hard shell and the kernel (the seed), which is the edible part. These components develop at different rates throughout the growing season and are influenced by factors such as temperature, crop load and the management of the crop by the growers. There is a lack of standardized non-destructive methods to effectively evaluate maturity and kernel filling for improved management and harvest timing. In a new study, a team of scientists have developed a novel tool to help pistachio growers improve harvest timing and reduce crop losses. By analysing colour patterns on the outer hulls of pistachios, the team created an image-based, non-destructive method to identify nut maturity and detect blanks (nuts without kernels). Using advanced data analysis, the computational tool accurately links colour changes to developmental stages and nut quality. This innovative approach supports better decisions in the field and could be adapted to other crops where colour signals ripeness or internal defects.

Read the article in Interface:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsif.2025.0119

17/10/2025

Fossil lizards from the Denver Basin, Colorado, highlight extinction severity during Earth's last mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous. The Cretaceous/Palaeogene mass extinction is the second-most severe of the ‘Big Five’ mass extinctions in Earth’s history and was triggered by the impact of a massive asteroid off the Yucatán Peninsula. During the Cretaceous/Palaeogene mass extinction (ca 66 million years ago), ca 75% of all species went extinct, including all non-avian dinosaurs. This event completely changed the trajectory of the evolutionary tree of life and resulted in a total rebuilding of terrestrial ecosystems from dinosaur, to mammal-dominated communities. In a new study of fossils from the Denver Basin, Colorado, researchers found a over 90% decrease in lizard diversity and a roughly 90% reduction lizard abundance after the extinction event compared to before. The study is set apart from other studies by exceptional age constraint that allows the placement of the lizard faunas to ~57,000 years before and ~128,000 after the extinction, further emphasizing the catastrophic ecosystem destruction in Colorado.

Read the article in Proceedings B:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2025.1234

17/10/2025

Social ties drive group choice in blue monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis). Animal groups occasionally split in two, providing rare opportunities to assess which social relationships matter most to their members. In choosing which new group to join, researchers found that adult female blue monkeys prioritize beneficial social relationships, remaining together with peers who were consistent, strong affiliates before the split, rather than those with whom they had inconsistent ties. Additionally, females join the post-fission group containing the original group’s resident male if they have or will soon have an infant, who faces infanticide risk from novel males. This study illuminates how different types of social ties and individual attributes influence decision-making in social animals.

Read the article in Proceedings B:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2025.0376

Image credit: Charles J. Sharp