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A new study shows that house sparrows' health closely correlates with urban density, and that sparrows are carrying surprisingly high loads of lead in their bodies.

A study of 10,775 high-risk adult patients during the COVID-19 delta variant surge in late 2021 finds that treatment with one of three anti-spike neutralizing monoclonal antibodies for mild to moderate symptoms led to low rates of severe disease, hospitalization, ICU admission and mortality, according to researchers.

Over a 30-year period, African wild dogs shifted their average birthing dates later by 22 days, an adaptation that allowed them to match the birth of new litters with the coolest temperatures in early winter. But as a result of this significant shift, fewer pups survived their most vulnerable period because temperatures during their critical post-birth 'denning period' increased over the same time period, threatening the population of this already endangered species. It is the first study to show that large mammalian carnivores are making major changes to their life history in response to a changing climate.

Higher COVID-19 mortality rates among Black communities in Louisiana can be linked to pervasive health vulnerabilities associated with racism, including the location of many Black neighborhoods near industrial facilities and the higher likelihood among Black families of being uninsured, researchers found. The team identified the spatial distribution of social and environmental stressors across Louisiana parishes, and tracked the correlations among stressors, cumulative health risks, COVID-19 mortality rates, and the size of Black populations across the parishes.

For decades, scientists have studied these fossils of early human ancestors and their long-lost relatives. Now, a dating method developed by geologists just pushed the age of some of these fossils found at the site of Sterkfontein Caves back more than a million years. This would make them older than Dinkinesh, also called Lucy, the world's most famous Australopithecus fossil.

Physicians were 20 to 30 percent less likely to prescribe an analgesic during nightshifts (compared to daytime shifts) and prescribed fewer painkillers than were generally recommended by the World Health Organization, according to a new study.

The endangered southern resident killer whale population isn't getting enough to eat, and hasn't been since 2018, a new study has determined. The animals have been in an energy deficit, averaged across spring, summer and fall, for six of the last 40 years -- meaning the energy they get from food is less than what they expend. Three of those six years came in the most recent years of the study, 2018 to 2020. The average difference in energy is 28,716 calories, or about 17 per cent of the daily required energy for an average adult killer whale, the authors say.

A major study into landscape changes in the Brazilian Amazon sheds new light on the many environmental threats the biome faces -- but also offers encouraging opportunities for ecological sustainability in the world's most biodiverse tropical forest. The study's findings are critical because as the Amazon moves closer towards a 'tipping point', they provide a robust evidence base to inform urgently needed conservation and regeneration priorities in the forest. They show that gains can be achieved through a range of actions -- including, but not limited to, halting deforestation.