Posts

“The discovery shows that our closest stellar neighbor seems to be packed with interesting new worlds, within reach of further study and future exploration,” explains João Faria, a researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço, Portugal and lead author of the study published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics. Proxima Centauri is the closest star to the Sun, lying just over four light-years away. The newly discovered planet, named Proxima d, orbits Proxima Centauri at a distance of about four million kilometers, less than a tenth of Mercury’s distance from the Sun....

A newly published article in Physical Review Letters eliminates one of the top unsolved theoretical problems in chemical physics as ranked by the National Research Council in 1995. Scientists now can more accurately predict the dynamic behavior of electrons in atoms and molecules in chemical reactions that govern a wide range of phenomena, including the fuel efficiency of combustion engines and the depletion of the atmospheric ozone. The paper by David Mazziotti, professor in chemistry at the University of Chicago, solves what specialists call the “N-representability problem....

The first comprehensive genetic map of sarcomas, produced by research led by Omico, the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, and UNSW Sydney, has identified several sarcoma-causing genes. The study holds significant implications for individuals and families affected by sarcoma, enabling earlier detection and potentially improving survival rates for patients. Sarcomas are rare cancers that originate in bones, muscles, fat, or cartilage. Primarily affecting children and young adults, these cancers account for approximately 20% of all cancer diagnoses in individuals under 20 years old....

The amount of television shows aimed at infants has grown over the previous 30 years. Screen time among infants (ages 0 to 2) doubled between 1997 and 2014. Recent research published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology investigated the influence of passive screen usage on the cognitive development of a young kid. According to the study, screen exposure—whether from a TV or a mobile device—can be advantageous depending on the circumstances....

A study published by The BMJ today (December 16, 2021) provides more reassuring data on the risk of heart inflammation (myocarditis or myopericarditis) after mRNA vaccination against the COVID-19 virus. It confirms previous reports of an increased risk after vaccination with BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) and mRNA-1273 (Moderna) but shows that the absolute number of cases was low, even in younger age groups, providing further evidence to support the overall safety of mRNA vaccines for COVID-19....

Loss of consciousness is a common and dangerous side effect of epileptic seizures. A study published this week in the journal Epilepsia, however, shows that activation of electrodes in key brain areas can awaken rats with induced seizures. “At least a quarter of people with epilepsy have seizures that can’t be controlled,” said Dr. Hal Blumenfeld, professor of neurology, neurobiology, and neurosurgery, and senior author of the study. “Our hope is that for this population, brain stimulation can help reduce injuries and deaths that result from a loss of consciousness....

A new study from Yale University shows that resistance to cancer drugs runs deeper than a single gene. Searching for more individual genes to predict responses to breast cancer therapy may not work, a new study suggests. Instead, scientists and clinicians need to pay attention to abnormalities in networks of genes, Yale researchers report in a paper published in the journal Annals of Oncology. The Yale team studied all the genes of 200 patients who had HER2-positive breast cancer (about 15% of breast cancers have too many copies of the HER2 gene)....

A new study that evaluated the effectiveness of the BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccine against the Omicron variant indicates that three doses could offer a sufficient level of protection from disease caused by the Omicron variant. The globally circulating SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern (VOC) Omicron (B.1.1.529) has a large number of mutations, especially in the spike protein, indicating that recognition by neutralizing antibodies may be compromised. Alexander Muik and colleagues tested Wuhan, Beta, Delta, or Omicron pseudoviruses with sera of 51 participants that received two or three doses of the mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine BNT162b2....

Previous research indicated that playing “sound cues” during sleeping can be used to reinforce certain memories. This latest study offers the first strong evidence that the approach may also be used to help individuals forget. The first author of the study, Dr. Bardur Joensen, a former Ph.D. student at the Department of Psychology, University of York, said: “Although still highly experimental at this stage, the results of our study raise the possibility that we can both increase and decrease the ability to recall specific memories by playing sound cues when an individual is asleep....

Now, Salk Institute researchers have developed a new tool—dubbed SATI—to edit the mouse genome, enabling the team to target a broad range of mutations and cell types. The new genome-editing technology, described in Cell Research on August 23, 2019, could be expanded for use in a broad range of gene mutation conditions such as Huntington’s disease and the rare premature aging syndrome, progeria. “This study has shown that SATI is a powerful tool for genome editing,” says Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, a professor in Salk’s Gene Expression Laboratory and senior author of the paper....

A new therapy for influenza virus infections that may also prove effective against many other pathogenic virus infections, including HIV and COVID-19, has been developed by Purdue University scientists. In an average year, more than 2 million people in the United States are hospitalized with the flu, and 30,000 to 80,000 of them die from the flu or related complications. The Purdue team’s work is detailed in Nature Communications and uses a targeted therapy approach against the virus infections....

Now, another detector is being built to crack this window wider open. This next-generation observatory, called LISA, is expected to be in space in 2034, and it will be sensitive to gravitational waves of a lower frequency than those detected by the Earth-bound Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). A new Northwestern University study predicts dozens of binaries (pairs of orbiting compact objects) in the globular clusters of the Milky Way will be detectable by LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna)....

Australian researchers reveal new molecules that provide profound protection in asthma models — as well as reducing severity of asthma attacks. A study designed to study how the immune system impacts gut bacteria — has led to the extraordinary discovery of two molecules that can not only provide profound protection in experimental models of asthma but can also substantially reduce the severity of an attack. Neither of these molecules, one of which is already commercially available as a dietary supplement, were previously known to have an effect on asthma — and they also appear, from animal studies, to have a role in treating the respiratory illness that is prevalent, and often fatal, in people with serious COVID-19....

Researchers from the University of Tsukuba have sent mice into space to explore effects of spaceflight and reduced gravity on muscle atrophy, or wasting at the molecular level. Most of us have imagined how free it would feel to float around, like an astronaut, in conditions of reduced gravity. But have you ever considered what the effects of reduced gravity might have on muscles? Gravity is a constant force on Earth which all living creatures have evolved to rely on and adapt to....

“This is one of the most exciting studies I’ve worked on,” says Philipp Heck, a curator at the Field Museum, associate professor at the University of Chicago, and lead author of a paper describing the findings that was published today (January 1, 2020) in PNAS . “These are the oldest solid materials ever found, and they tell us about how stars formed in our galaxy.” The materials Heck and his colleagues examined are called presolar grains— minerals formed before the Sun was born....

In a paper published January 22 in the journal Physical Review Letters, an international team of astrophysicists provided the first clue: The solution to this mystery, it turns out, lies among some of the oldest stars in the galaxy. “Essentially, these old stars act as visible speedometers for the invisible dark matter, measuring its speed distribution near Earth,” said Mariangela Lisanti, an assistant professor of physics at Princeton University. “You can think of the oldest stars as a luminous tracer for the dark matter....

Overfishing likely did not cause the Atlantic cod, an iconic species, to evolve genetically and mature earlier, according to a study led by Rutgers University and the University of Oslo – the first of its kind – with major implications for ocean conservation. “Evolution has been used in part as an excuse for why cod and other species have not recovered from overfishing,” said first author Malin L. Pinsky, an associate professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University–New Brunswick....

Humans could learn a thing or two from turtles, and scientists who have just sequenced the first turtle genome uncovered clues about how people can benefit from the shelled creatures’ remarkable longevity and ability to survive for months without breathing. Understanding the natural mechanisms turtles use to protect their heart and brain from oxygen deprivation may one day improve treatments for heart attack and stroke, the researchers said. Conservation biologist and lead author Brad Shaffer from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) collaborated with the Genome Institute at Washington University in St....

Over their entire late-Cretaceous reign, the total number of Tyrannosaurus rex that ever lived on Earth was roughly 2.5 billion individuals, according to a new study, which leveraged the relationship between body mass and population density observed in living animals to estimate the population traits of the iconic, long-extinct species. According to the authors, the framework they developed could be applied to any extinct creature given the appropriate data. It opens the door for a host of new investigations into other palaeoecological and taphonomic questions....

Galaxies exchange matter with their external environment thanks to galactic winds.The MUSE instrument from the Very Large Telescope has, for the very first time, mapped the galactic wind that drive these exchanges between galaxies and nebulae.This observation led to the detection of some of the Universe’s missing matter. Galaxies can receive and exchange matter with their external environment thanks to the galactic winds created by stellar explosions. Thanks to the MUSE instrument[1] from the Very Large Telescope at the ESO, an international research team, led on the French side by the CNRS and l’Université Claude Bernard Lyon,[1,2] has mapped a galactic wind for the first time....