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Some animals are more susceptible to COVID-19 infection than others, and new research suggests this may be due to distinctive structural features of a protein found on the surface of animal cells. João Rodrigues of Stanford University, California, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS Computational Biology. Previous research suggests that the current pandemic began when the virus that causes COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, jumped from bats or pangolins to humans....

In a paper published on May 10, 2018, in Cell, researchers from the Salk Institute report a potential new approach for treating diabetes by protecting beta cells–the cells in the pancreas that produce, store, and release the hormone insulin. When beta cells become dysfunctional, the body can’t make insulin to control blood sugar (glucose) and levels of glucose can rise to dangerous–even fatal–levels. The investigators accomplished their goal by using an unexpected source: vitamin D....

A plastics recycling innovation that does more with less simultaneously increases conversion to useful products while using less of the precious metal ruthenium. It will be presented today (August 22, 2022) at the American Chemical Society fall meeting in Chicago. “The key discovery we report is the very low metal load,” said Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) chemist Janos Szanyi, who led the research team. “This makes the catalyst much cheaper....

Nature’s antifreeze Current strategies to cryopreserve cells and organs involve bathing them with large amounts of dimethyl sulfoxide, a toxic chemical that messes up ice formation but stresses the cells, decreasing their odds for survival. Nature, however, has found a way to keep organisms alive under extreme cold conditions: antifreeze proteins. Fish, insects and other cold-blooded organisms have evolved potent antifreeze glycoproteins that bind to ice crystallites and halt them from growing and damaging cells....

The study – which is the first to create a radio image of Andromeda at the microwave frequency of 6.6 GHz – was led by University of British Columbia physicist Sofia Fatigoni, with colleagues at Sapienza University of Rome and the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics. It was published online in Astronomy and Astrophysics. “This image will allow us to study the structure of Andromeda and its content in more detail than has ever been possible,” said Fatigoni, a PhD student in the department of physics and astronomy at UBC....

A new study reveals that Mars was born wet, with a dense atmosphere allowing warm-to-hot oceans for millions of years. This discovery was recently published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters. To arrive at this conclusion, researchers created the first model of the evolution of the Martian atmosphere, which links the high temperatures associated with Mars’ molten formation to the creation of the first oceans and atmosphere. Because the water vapor would condense out as clouds at lower altitudes in the atmosphere, this model demonstrates that, similar to the modern Earth, water vapor was concentrated in the lower atmosphere of Mars and that the upper atmosphere was “dry....

COVID-19 Virus Triggers Antibodies From Previous Coronavirus Infections Findings may also explain how previous exposure could partially account for differences in severity between old vs. young patients. The results of a study led by Northern Arizona University and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), an affiliate of City of Hope, suggest the immune systems of people infected with COVID-19 may rely on antibodies created during infections from earlier coronaviruses to help fight the disease....

In science fiction, finding antimatter on board your spaceship is not good news. Usually, it means you’re moments away from an explosion. In real life, though, finding antimatter could lead to a Nobel Prize. On April 3rd, researchers led by Nobel Laureate Samuel Ting of MIT announced that the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a particle detector operating onboard the International Space Station since 2011, has counted more than 400,000 positrons, the antimatter equivalent of electrons....

Researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) have developed a prototype detector of solar particles. The device is capable of picking up protons at kinetic energies between 10 and 100 megaelectronvolts, and electrons at 1-10 MeV. This covers most of the high-energy particle flux coming from the sun. The new detector can improve radiation protection for astronauts and spaceships, as well as advancing our understanding of solar flares....

Scientists working at the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences (SIMES) have improved an innovative solar-energy device to be about 100 times more efficient than its previous design in converting the sun’s light and heat into electricity. “This is a major step toward making practical devices based on our technique for harnessing both the light and heat energy provided by the sun,” said Nicholas Melosh, associate professor of materials science and engineering at Stanford and a researcher with SIMES, a joint SLAC/Stanford institute....

It might look like a spoked wheel or even a “Chakram” weapon wielded by warriors like “Xena,” from the fictional TV show, but this ringed galaxy is actually a vast place of stellar life. A newly released image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope shows the galaxy NGC 1291. Though the galaxy is quite old, roughly 12 billion years, it is marked by an unusual ring where newborn stars are igniting....

The closest supernova of its kind to be observed in the last few decades has sparked a global observing campaign involving legions of instruments on the ground and in space, including NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. With its dust-piercing infrared vision, Spitzer brings an important perspective to this effort by peering directly into the heart of the aftermath of the stellar explosion. Dust in the supernova’s host galaxy M82, also called the “Cigar galaxy,” partially obscures observations in optical and high-energy forms of light....

With the COVID-19 pandemic causing illness and death worldwide, better treatments are urgently needed. One shortcut could be to repurpose existing drugs that were originally developed to treat other conditions. Computational methods can help identify such drugs by simulating how different drugs would interact with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. To aid virtual screening of existing drugs, Zhang and colleagues combined multiple computational techniques that simulate drug-virus interactions from different, complimentary perspectives....

For example, damage to the hair cells in the inner ear can lead to hearing loss. According to Dr. Amrita Iyer, a researcher at Baylor College of Medicine and lead author of a new study published in eLife, “these cells allow the brain to detect sounds.” Hair cells are generated during normal development but this ability is progressively lost after birth as mammals mature. “When hair cells are lost in mature animals, the cells cannot be naturally regenerated, which can lead to permanent hearing loss,” Iyer explained....

A second look at data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is reanimating the claim that the nearby star Fomalhaut hosts a massive exoplanet. The study suggests that the planet, named Fomalhaut b, is a rare and possibly unique object that is completely shrouded by dust. Fomalhaut is the brightest star in the constellation Piscis Austrinus and lies 25 light-years away. In November 2008, Hubble astronomers announced the exoplanet, named Fomalhaut b, as the first one ever directly imaged in visible light around another star....

A new study led by Marc Veldhoen, principal investigator at Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes (iMM; Portugal) with an interdisciplinary team of clinicians and researchers from Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa (FMUL) and Centro Hospitalar Lisboa Norte (CHLN) and collaborators at Instituto Português do Sangue e Transplantação (IPST), shows that 90% of subjects have detectable antibodies from 40 days up to 7 months post contracting COVID-19....

Two new papers from members of the MESSENGER Science Team provide global-scale maps of Mercury’s surface chemistry that reveal previously unrecognized geochemical terranes — large regions that have compositions distinct from their surroundings. The presence of these large terranes has important implications for the history of the planet. The MESSENGER mission was designed to answer several key scientific questions, including the nature of Mercury’s geological history. Remote sensing of the surface’s chemical composition has a strong bearing on this and other questions....

Scientists at the University of Zurich have modified a common respiratory virus, called adenovirus, to act like a Trojan horse to deliver genes for cancer therapeutics directly into tumor cells. Unlike chemotherapy or radiotherapy, this approach does no harm to normal healthy cells. Once inside tumor cells, the delivered genes serve as a blueprint for therapeutic antibodies, cytokines and other signaling substances, which are produced by the cancer cells themselves and act to eliminate tumors from the inside out....

Method to further understanding of the quantum state space. In 2019, Google claimed it was the first to demonstrate a quantum computer performing a calculation beyond the abilities of today’s most powerful supercomputers. But most of the time, creating a quantum algorithm that stands a chance at beating a classical computer is an accidental process, Purdue University scientists say. To bring more guidance to this process and make it less arbitrary, these scientists developed a new theory that may eventually lead to more systematic design of quantum algorithms....

A vapor product that contains new-to-world technology has significantly fewer and lower levels of certain toxicants compared to cigarette smoke*, a study has shown. Scientists at British American Tobacco (BAT) performed a series of chemistry tests designed to look for specific compounds in the vapor from iSwitch, BAT’s new vapor product which uses a stainless-steel blade to heat e-liquid. The emissions from iSwitch were compared to those from a reference cigarette (1R6F)....