Posts

Scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have developed a new sample preparation method to detect SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The method bypasses extraction of the virus’ genetic RNA material, simplifying sample purification and potentially reducing test time and cost. The method is the result of a collaboration among researchers at the National Eye Institute (NEI), the NIH Clinical Center (CC), and the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR)....

It’s no secret that China is faced with some of the world’s worst pollution. Until now, however, information on the magnitude, scope, and impacts of a major contributor to that pollution – human-caused nitrogen emissions – was lacking. A newly published study, co-authored by Stanford Woods Institute biologist Peter Vitousek, reveals that amounts of nitrogen (from industry, cars and fertilizer) deposited on land and water in China by way of rain, dust, and other carriers increased by 60 percent from the 1980s to the 2000s, with profound consequences for the country’s people and ecosystems....

While Wineland used light to measure the quantum state of atoms, Haroche used as a sensitive probe of light particles trapped in a cavity. Both of these techniques have been applied to investigate the fundamentals of quantum mechanics, and might lead to the development of quantum computers or incredibly precise atomic clocks. Particles of light and matter can occupy several mutually exclusive states simultaneously. Particles will show their quantum nature only in complete isolation, and even the tiniest interference can destroy it....

Just to the south of the group of barchan dunes is one large dune with a more complex structure. This particular dune, appearing like turquoise blue in enhanced color, is made of finer material and/or has a different composition than the surrounding. The map is projected above at a scale of 25 centimeters (9.8 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 34.7 centimeters (13.7 inches) per pixel (with 1 x 1 binning); objects on the order of 104 centimeters (40....

A new model, available as an online calculator, estimates the impact of dietary changes on life expectancy. A young adult in the U.S. could add more than a decade to their life expectancy by changing their diet from a typical Western diet to an optimized diet that includes more legumes, whole grains and nuts, and less red and processed meat, according to a new study publishing today (February 8th, 2022) in PLOS Medicine by Lars Fadnes of the University of Bergen, Norway, and colleagues....

During the COVID-19 pandemic, parents have been faced with challenging circumstances to balance work, household, care of children and support of distance learning for school-age children without help from their regular support systems such as schools, childcare, and often other family members as well. A new longitudinal study in Germany examined day-to-day parenting behavior during the restrictions and closures caused by the pandemic from the end of March until the end of April 2020....

Phosphorus is one of the six main elements that make up the human body, and is a necessary building block for other organisms. However, unlike hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and calcium, phosphorus is rare. It is even more scarce in the rest of the Solar System. Astrobiologists are tracking phosphorus, hoping that it leads them to signs of other life. Many meteorites contain phosphorus, and knowing how phosphorus is distributed through the Solar System could help scientists determine where the meteorites came from, depending on the amount and type of phosphorus they contain....

Talk about storing data in the cloud. Scientists at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland have taken this to a whole new level by demonstrating that they can store visual images within quite an ethereal memory device—a thin vapor of rubidium atoms. The effort may prove helpful in creating memory for quantum computers. Their work builds on an approach developed at the Australian National University, where scientists showed that a rubidium vapor could be manipulated in interesting ways using magnetic fields and lasers....

If a genome is the blueprint for life, then the chief architects are tiny slices of genetic material that orchestrate how we are assembled and function, Yale School of Medicine researchers report February 21 in the journal Developmental Cell. The study pinpoints the molecular regulators of epigenetics — the process by which unchanging genes along our DNA are switched on and off at precisely the right time and place. “Our genome is like a landscape with lakes, mountains, and rivers, but it is not yet a community or a city full of buildings,” said Haifan Lin, director of the Yale Stem Cell Center and senior author of the study....

Inhibiting, or blocking, this protease from functioning is vital to stopping the virus from spreading in patients with COVID-19. The study, published in the journal Structure, is part of efforts to quickly develop pharmaceutical treatments for COVID-19 by repurposing existing drugs known to effectively treat other viral diseases. “Currently, there are no inhibitors approved by the Food and Drug Administration that target the SARS-CoV-2 main protease,” said ORNL lead author Daniel Kneller....

Twelve economically and culturally significant species that live in the CCME will be significantly impacted by climate change over the next 80 years, according to new research led by Professor Terrie Klinger from the Washington Ocean Acidification Center within EarthLab at the University of Washington and Professor Jennifer Sunday, a professor of biology at McGill University. The largest reactions to shifting ocean conditions in this environment will be seen in the northern part of this region and regions that are closest to the coast....

The scientists published their findings in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) have a number of measurable impacts on the environment, mostly from the massive quantities of manure that they produce. That waste contains microbes that can make humans sick, and it’s usually collected in open pits or sprayed on fields as fertilizer, risking the contamination of air, water, and soil. The smell is also problematic, as the staggering stench has shown negative effects on stress and moods....

Scientists used animal-free testing techniques to show that African and Asian primates evolved resistance toward the venoms of large, daytime-active cobras and discovered that our last common ancestor with chimps and gorillas evolved even stronger resistance. University of Queensland PhD candidate Richard Harris said African and Asian primates developed venom resistance after a long evolutionary arms race. “As primates from Africa gained the ability to walk upright and dispersed throughout Asia, they developed weapons to defend themselves against venomous snakes, this likely sparked an evolutionary arms race and evolving this venom resistance,” Mr....

Researchers from Yonsei University in South Korea have found that certain commensal bacteria that reside in the human intestine produce compounds that inhibit SARS-CoV-2. The research will be presented on June 20 at World Microbe Forum, an online meeting of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), the Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS), and several other societies that will take place online June 20-24. Previous clinical findings have shown that some patients with moderate to severe COVID-19 have gastro-intestinal symptoms, while others showed signs of infection solely in the lungs....

According to the study’s authors, the findings suggest that governments should consider keeping some staff in protected areas at all times as an “essential service,” even during periods of health crisis and travel restrictions. The scientists say that more attention must be paid to the management of protected areas, not just expanding their coverage, at the long-delayed convention to set international biodiversity goals later this year. Madagascar is a renowned biodiversity “hotspot,” home to species such as its famous lemur populations that don’t exist anywhere else....

In a new study, Rockefeller scientist Mary E. Hatten and research associate Hourinaz Behesti demonstrate that the protein ASTN2 helps move proteins away from the membrane in a timely fashion. The researchers also propose a mechanism by which ASTN2 defects lead to neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and intellectual disabilities. Proteins that need proteins Neurons send messages to one another in the form of chemicals, or neurotransmitters, which activate receptor proteins on the surface of neighboring cells....

Some years ago, Rudolf Grimm’s team of quantum physicists in Innsbruck provided experimental proof of Efimov states – a phenomenon that until then had been known only in theory. Now they have also measured the second Efimov resonance of three particles in an ultracold quantum gas, thus, proving the periodicity of this universal physical phenomenon experimentally. Eight years ago Rudolf Grimm’s research group was the first to observe an Efimov state in an ultracold quantum gas....

There is a general consensus among researchers that there was water on Mars at some point in the planet’s history, but the extent and duration of that water is still a topic of debate. According to a recent study from the University of Copenhagen, it is believed that Mars was once covered in a 300-meter-deep ocean of water around 4.5 billion years ago. “At this time, Mars was bombarded with asteroids filled with ice....

Poultry industry will be encouraged by study that finds the root of wooden breast syndrome. University of Delaware researchers have discovered that lipoprotein lipase, an enzyme crucial for fat metabolism, may be contributing to wooden breast syndrome in broiler chickens. Wooden breast syndrome can affect broiler chickens, making the meat hard and chewy. It is a costly problem that can render the birds unmarketable, causing significant economic losses for growers, who sometimes see the disease in up to half their flocks....

Various possible defects in the lattice of what are known as hybrid perovskites had previously been considered as the potential cause of such limitations, but it was assumed that the organic molecules (the components responsible for the “hybrid” moniker) would remain intact. Cutting-edge computations have now revealed that missing hydrogen atoms in these molecules can cause massive efficiency losses. The findings are published in a paper titled “Minimizing hydrogen vacancies to enable highly efficient hybrid perovskites,” in the April 29 issue of the journal Nature Materials....